Prom
by gdangel
Summary: So Mia and Emily are seniors and they want to go to prom. Of course that means putting their friends in danger, so they have to keep things a secret from the rest of the team. Just how will they do it?
1. Chapter 1

AN: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

Chapter 1: Genius

"So, Emily are we going to prom or not?" Mia asked with a smile plastered on her face.

She knew as well as I did that we weren't suppose to be around our friends, but this was our senior year prom. How could we not go? She knew that no matter how against sneaking out I was, I would change my mind for this one occasion.

"Yeah, but don't let the others know-"

"Don't let the others know what?" Mike asked walking into the kitchen where Mia and I were making… Actually, I wasn't quite sure what we were making.

Nervously I bit my lip, trying to come up with a really good lie. Mike wanted to see his friends more than any of us, so I knew he'd understand, and I knew he'd also be completely against it.

Mike knew first-hand the danger that we would put our friends in by going. So I knew that if we told him that we were planning to sneak out, there was no way that he was going to let that happen.

"We're talking about girl stuff Mike. You know like boys," I countered quickly hoping he'd avoid the subject completely after that, but…

He smirked and grabbed an apple from the basket of fruit on the counter, "Really so Emily you have a crush on somebody huh?"

"No."

"Yes you do who is it?"

"No one."

"Awe, you can tell me Em."

"I don't like anyone!" I hissed.

Mike raised an eyebrow, "Then why were you telling Mia not to tell anyone?"

I opened my mouth to counter, but what could I say? He'd caught me. There was nothing I could say about Prom and so…

"I can't tell you who it is," I shook my head trying to it as believable as possible, which wasn't hard when I actually did have a crush on someone.

Taking a bite of his apple he leaned on the counter, "Yes you can."

"No she really can't," Mia said in a sing song voice and I started to feel a little uncomfortable. No one knew that I actually had feelings for Mike, but it still made me nervous when anyone got close to figuring things out.

And Mia made it sound like I couldn't tell Mike because it was him or someone he knew.

"It's someone here?" My eyes went wide, knowing that he was way too close to home. I didn't want him to even know that much. I hadn't even told Mia that I had a crush on him yet.

"Maybe it is, maybe it's not," Mia shrugged. If she knew that I liked him, I knew that she wouldn't be saying the things that she was, but that didn't stop me from wanting to take my hands and clamp them over her mouth to make her stop talking.

"Just drop it Mike," I snapped throwing both of my hands on the counter, taking a stern stance, and staring him down.

He mirrored me, unafraid of how stubborn I was.

"I think it's cute. You know, if you told me I could help you win him over," Mike suggested, not knowing how much I wanted to run and hide under a rock. A really really big rock.

"You know if she told you, she'd have to kill you, now out!" Mia waved her cooking spoon in the air, like this wasn't that big of a deal, but I knew that Mike wasn't going to let this go so easily.

"You know I'm going to find out sooner or later,"

Mia pointed her spoon at him, "Why do you even care so much? You jealous?"

"What? Me jealous?"

"Well you are the green ranger for a reason. And it's kinda obvious that you like her," Mia crossed her arms acting like she hadn't just let out a big secret, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"He does?" I asked looking to her. I felt like suddenly time had slowed, and even my breathing had stopped for a second or two.

"Psh. Whatever," Mike backed off, but he pointed to me, "I will find out," he said and then finally walked away.

"He does?" I asked again, ignoring Mike's leave.

The Pink ranger smiled, "Of course he does. Why do you think he got so much happier when he thought that it was between him, Kevin and Jayden?"

"Well, maybe one of them has a crush on me and he's trying to be helpful?" I played everything off trying not to be too hopeful.

Going back to stirring the pan of… stuff? on the stove she laughed, "Jayden couldn't care less about girls right now, he's too pre-occupied with the whole leader thing. And Kevin… I think he sees you as more of a little sister."

"Hm…" I tried to play everything off with a thoughtful look, but on the inside I was bursting with excitement.

"So… do you think our friends will be excited to see us?" I asked changing the subject, while trying to picture what it would be like. I hadn't seen them all in so long.

Mia laughed, "Is Jayden the red ranger?"

I let myself smile, but I still felt a little weird. The year had gone by so fast, and I had changed so much. I wasn't the same meek, sweat, little Emily I used to be. Everything had changed so drastically that I wasn't even sure I wanted to see my old friends again. Not because I didn't miss them, but because I wanted to remember things the way they were and I didn't want that to change.

"Alright it's ready!" Mia chimed snapping me out of my thoughts about high school.

She held up a spoonful of purple goo, "Do you want the first taste?"

I braced myself because I had never eaten anything like purple goo before.

Lying like a crazy person, I gave a thumbs up and nodded in approval and then ran to the restroom to try and wash my mouth out with soap. It tasted like… feet and bugs. Which was strange because I'm pretty sure that Mia isn't a cannibal… The bugs on the other hand I'm not so sure about.

In the bathroom one hand went to the sink and the other to my tooth brush and paste. I scrubbed and scrubbed mostly thinking about how awful Mia's cooking had just been. Usually her food was decent, but this was absolutely horrible. Then as the tase went away I went back to thinking about prom.

I knew that getting the dressing would be the hardest part since we would have to sneak out while the guys were either asleep or preoccupied with something else.

That's when it hit me. Video games. And not just any video games, competitive video games that would keep the guys busy while me and Mia snuck out and in without a single person realizing we were gone.

Putting my toothbrush away I grinned evilly, "Hey guys? Who's the best at Halo?"

I heard them start arguing about it and I knew that they were going to have a face off in order to settle things. I also knew that somehow Kevin would get roped in even though he was horrible at video games and that Mia and I would have to work fast.

So as soon as dinner was over, and we were sure that the guys were completely sucked into their game, we left.

Review please! :D


	2. Romeo? Juliet?

AN: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

Chapter 2: Romeo? Juliet?

Mia and I were sneaking back into the dojo. We had gone shopping earlier, but we'd stashed the dresses in a cave not too far from here, so that no one would find them. Because after all, if the guys saw us with big bags and dresses inside them they might be a little suspicious.

Which is why it was so important to wait until we were sure that everyone was asleep to go get them and bring them inside. Of course, knowing that they were asleep didn't make us any less nervous.

When we finally reached our room, I thought we would be home free.

"What are those?" Jayden asked from behind us.

He must have heard us.

Mia cracked under the pressure, not being able to lie about it, "They're… They're prom dresses. It's one night, and it's the only time we'll ever get to go. Please Jayden?"

She never was the greatest liar in the world, but I'd hoped she wouldn't crack that easily. Then again, it was Jayden she was talking to, the team leader.

"You guys know it's too risky. Remember what happened when Mike went to see his friends?" Jayden scolded. The worst part was knowing that he was right, and not caring even a little bit about that.

"Come on Jayden," Mia pleaded. She seemed to be the only one he actually let have their way, and her puppy dog pout seemed to be swaying his will quite nicely.

But he was still unsure about the whole thing, so he sighed, "I don't know."

"Jayden…" I whispered knowing that it was no use to beg him. There were only two people Jayden listened to: Mia and Master Ji. My voice in this situation made no difference.

"This is the only Prom we will ever have in our entire life, and we promise that we won't let any of our friends see us after that night. Just… Please let us go," Mia pleaded.

Jayden clenched his jaw and then rubbed his temple. I knew that inside him there was a battle going on. One side knew what it meant to want to have normal experiences, and the other was filled with warning about the dangers of that.

Finally, he gave in, "Fine, but this is the only time you are doing something like this."

Mia and I squealed, waking everyone, but Master Ji, who sleeps in a cottage just far enough away.

"What going on?" Kevin and Mike asked rubbing their eyes as they entered the room.

Mia and I cracked up laughing when we saw Kevin's bunny slippers, but we calmed ourselves enough to realize how serious the situation was. Just because Jayden understood, didn't mean that Mike and Kevin would. We looked to each other, and then plead with our eyes to Jayden, begging him not to say a word, knowing deep down that if he outed us everything would be over.

"I was just granting the girls permission for a night out is all," Jayden told the truth, well the half-truth, he'd left out the important details, and both Mia and I were glad that he did, but we weren't completely home free.

Mike cocked his head to his side, "Is that what the dresses are for?"

Mia and I nodded. We didn't know exactly how to explain why we had the dresses or what we needed them for, luckily Mike didn't ask.

Instead he asked, "Does this have anything to do with the guy you have a crush on?"

I took a few seconds to think about what I would say. Mia and I needed a night off. We all needed to feel like the weight of the world was entirely on our shoulders… At least for a little while. And most of all, we needed to just be kids for one more night. If I said the wrong thing I might lose any chance I had with Mike, but if I said another thing I might never get to go to prom.

"Something like that," I said thinking as quickly as I could.

Jayden and Kevin just kind of looked at me, trying to figure out just what they'd missed, making me nervous.

I bit my lip and crossed my arms, trying to stand my ground, when did wanting to go to prom become so complicated.

Mike smirked, "So you're gonna go for it, huh, Em?"

"Well, I figure I don't have anything to lose," I countered, lying through my teeth. There was no way I would tell my crush in real life that I like him. I was too afraid that things would get weird and that I wouldn't get to talk to him about anything anymore, after all he was the best part about this whole experience.

I was taken away from my family and friends, never being able to even check up on my sister to see how she was doing, but Mike made everything okay in a way. Sure, I still missed everyone, but… It was like it was okay.

"So you think he likes you too then?" Mike asked taking a step forward, snapping me out of my thoughts and I looked to him not knowing how to answer that question.

Thankfully, Mia chimed in to help my case, "We know that he likes her. He just hasn't admitted it yet…"

"Well as nice at that sounds we need to get some serious sleep if we expect to run that obstacle course Master Ji set up for us, in the morning," Kevin yawned, not really caring about the whole thing. Not even Jayden seemed that interested. Mike was the only one who really cared about the whole thing. Why couldn't he just let things go like the others and make my life easier?

"Yeah. Alright. Night girls," Jayden said as he and Kevin exited the room, leaving Mia, Mike, and me.

"So are you going to tell me which one of them it is or not?" Mike crossed his arms.

"Mike let it go!" I yelled as I put my dress in the closet, along with Mia's.

But he just cornered me and used his puppy dog eyes to try and coax it out of me.

"Why is it so important to you?" embarrassment flooded my cheeks.

"Because Em, you're my best friend and I don't like it when you keep secrets from me. I'll tell you who I like if you tell me who you do," of course, he played the best friend card. God, I hated it when he did that, it made me feel like I had to tell him, and that if I didn't I was being a horrible friend, but if I did… And I wasn't the one that he had a crush on...

"Mike, you're just going to have to wait and find out," I tried to explain, but it just made his puppy dog stare more intense. He made me feel like I was kicking him in the gut, even though I was only trying to protect our friendship. I loved him too much to let anything happen to our relationship. Sure, there were times when I wanted more.

Like right now with Mike standing so close to me, with a relationship only seconds away from happening, but I didn't want to ruin things, or make him feel like because I liked him and he didn't like me he couldn't be close to me anymore. Because he was the only one keeping me sane throughout this whole thing. I needed him by my side. I wouldn't know what I was doing here on this team if it wasn't for him, and I don't think I could handle this without him.

"You know Emily, he might be able to help us, I mean he is a guy right?" Mia tried to persuade me.

Blinking a few times I looked to her like she was some sort of inanimate object. While we were shopping for dresses I told her all about my feeling for Mike, so I couldn't understand what she was doing, or why she had a devilish look plastered on her face.

"Yeah, she's right Em, I can help you get inside his head," Mike smiled his adorable cheesy grin and that's when I understood where she was going with things.

I could figure out how Mike felt by asking him questions about the guy I like without letting him know that guy was him.

"Fine you can help, but you will get no names, and will not ask any questions, understood?" I crossed my arms.

"Awe, you don't trust me?"

I rolled my eyes, "And will you be telling me who you have a crush on?"

Giving up Mike slumped on my bed, "Fine,"

Relieved, and a little curious, I laid down next to him, "Okay, first question who do you like?"

He raised an eyebrow and Mia giggled.

He looked at me seriously for a moment, almost as if he was deciding whether or not to tell me.

Then he smirked, "If I don't get any answers from you, you won't get any from me"

I stuck my tongue out at him, "Fine, second question, how am I supposed to know that a guy likes me. I mean do you guys have some secret code or something?"

"Not really. I mean, I guess we just want to get to know more about her and be around her more. And we don't really like being away from her, you know," He explained the feelings I was going through as well, so I understood completely, but it didn't help me any.

"That's nice, hm… Well… Since you're not going to be much help, tell me about the girl you like. What's she like? Is she someone I know?" I asked trying to seem more curious than jealous.

He laid down beside me and looked into my eyes, "Well she's beautiful, more beautiful than anyone I have ever known, inside and out. And she's this amazing person who would do anything for anyone. She's sweet and an amazing friend. I feel like I can tell her almost anything. And- well, that's all I'm going to say for now, since if I tell you anything else you'll use it to figure out who she is, and then how will I ever find out who Mr. Romeo is?"

I giggled, "Romeo? Should I call your crush Julliet?"

"Romeo, Juliet, we get it. You'll both end up telling each other who you like eventually, so can we go to sleep now?" Mia whined. But it was really getting late, so I pouted and let it go. Plus she probably didn't want to be around me and Mike for this whole conversation…

"Awe, you're no fun Mia," Mike complained, just before he started jumping on her bed.

"That's it," she cried as she grabbed her pillow.

And before we knew it all three of us were in major trouble from Jayden… Because during our pillow fight we might have accidentally hit a shattered an ancient piece of pottery. Oopsies…


	3. Shopping Plaza Craziness

AN: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

Also thank you so much everyone who has reviewed, you guys are the best.

Chapter 3: Shopping Plaza Craziness

"Oh! Hey this is our stop!" I exclaimed as I tugged on the line that gives the signal to the bus driver.

The guys looked at me confused, but Mia knew exactly what was going on in fact she was already half-way out the door. I knew I didn't have time to explain either, so I mumbled something about shoes and then made my way to the door. The guys, still unsure of what was going on, quickly followed behind us.

Mike, Jayden, and Kevin we're all grumbling about getting off where we weren't supposed to because they knew that they were going to be out of a meal, since we were all supposed to go to lunch at the new pizza place downtown and this definitely wasn't downtown.

"So…" Kevin started, but was interrupted by his stomach, making us all stop and stare before he could finish with his question, "Where are we getting lunch exactly?"

Mia and I were hungry too, but lunch was one of the last things on our minds we still had to get shoes and make-up and even figure out what we were going to do with our hair. All we could talk about since we got the okay was our old friends and what we thought they would be wearing and what they would say about our dresses. Because yes, we wanted to look like princesses, but we wanted to be ones they recognized. We wanted everything to be like it was.

"We have to get some things first," Mia explained, as we took off again towards our favorite shoe store.

Jayden rolled his eyes, "For?"

Even if he had agreed to let us go, he was still a guy. A guy that would have no idea why we girls had to look perfect for this once in a lifetime event.

I answered, "For me and Mia when we have our night out."

The boys groaned and Mike asked the one question I was hoping he wouldn't, "What is this night out about anyway?"

I took a deep breath and watched as Mia opened her mouth and then shut it again. Looking at her one could see she was struggling with what to say. She'd never lied before, at least not on purpose. And I knew looking into Mike's eyes that if I said anything it would be the truth.

I knew I couldn't tell him about prom, and I knew that I couldn't lie to him. I told him everything, well apart from the fact that I was falling in love with him, but that doesn't count. So, how could I keep this a secret from him? That's why I had spent most of my time trying to avoid this one question. I asked him about video games, why the grass had to be mowed twice a week at the dojo instead of just once, I asked whatever I could to keep him away from anything that even resembled the word prom. Still, I couldn't avoid it forever.

"They're going to be in the beauty pageant here next Thursday," Jayden jumped in, saving the day. I almost wanted to hug him for saving Mia and I, but at the same time I wanted to kill him. There was no way Mike was going to buy that. And if he did he would want to see it with his own two eyes. There was no way I was going to live through this torment.

"A beauty pageant? Really?" I didn't like the tone of Mike's voice when he said that.

"I could be in a beauty pageant," the words came out of my mouth before I realized what I was even saying.

"Emily? Are you sure about that?" Mike laughed, but I didn't see what was so funny. I know I wasn't the best at a lot of things, but I looked half-way decent and I could get away with being in a beauty pageant if I had to.

"You better be careful Mike, you might get on Emily's bad side, and we don't need you to be recovering from an injury while we're all out fighting monsters," Mia tried to stop the conversation with a little humor, but it was a little too late.

After a few minutes of silence, I didn't meet his eyes, but I confronted him, "Why couldn't I be in a pageant? Am I not pretty enough? Huh? Am I not talented enough? What?"

"Em… It's not like that. It's just… You're not the right type of girl for a beauty pageant," this time I made contact with his eyes, letting him know that he was a big fat jerk for saying that, he winced and continued, "I just mean that you're not snobby and obsessed with puking your guts out to fit inside a size that doesn't suit you. Besides you don't need a beauty pageant to prove that you're beautiful and talented and amazing. And if this is all because of the guy you like, then I say you forget about him for not being able to see what's right in front of him,"

I blushed and nodded thinking over all the words he'd just said, and treasuring them like they were the most incredible words that had ever been spoken. Even if they weren't, they were certainly enough to get my heart racing. Finally, I turned around so that we could continue walking towards the shoe store, only to see a special news report going on about the disappearances of girls who were getting ready for Prom.

It figures. Of course, Dayu probably decided this was a good time to make a prom dress, since she couldn't have her wedding dress. The worst part was. I recognized some of the missing people. There were a few I didn't, but there were actually people from my High School.

It almost made me want to call quits on the whole thing because I really would be putting my friends life's at stake. And then… There was another part of me that wanted to go, so I could get Dayu's attention and then kick her butt for good.

"That whole Prom thing doesn't sound so good, we'll probably have to investigate," Kevin suggested, and I bit my lip. This was all getting so close to home, the secret just kept getting harder to keep.

When we finally arrived at the Shoe store I completely switched over to shopping mode, and Mia and were gone for the next two hours while the boys decided to take a walk. So we took our time getting shoes, accessories, and a few last minute make-up products that we would need for a few ideas we had come up with the day before when we were flipping through a magazine our friends always used to buy.

It was just before we met up with the guys that we looked up and saw the poster for the modeling competition.

The old saying, 'Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong,' totally applied.

"Oh, no…" Mia face palmed.

The fact that there really was going to be a beauty competition down here was going to make things even harder.

Mia and I looked to each other nervously and we started to panic even more when we saw the guys coming towards us. We knew that they were starved, we knew that Mike and Kevin were not going to let us get away us getting all this stuff and then not being in the competition, and we knew that we had run out of options.

When they reached us we both smiled, and then Mia grabbed my hand and dragged me all the way to the other end of the shopping plaza where there was this sushi vendor that kept yelling and reminding me that I had eaten anything at all today. They stared at us for a moment or two waiting for us to come back and explain why we had avoided them. I was wondering the same thing.

"We can hire someone!" Mia exclaimed with this crazy look on her face.

Blinking a couple time I waited for her to explain, "To be us in the modeling competition. We can hold auditions and then pick the ones who will work best."

The guy yelling about his sushi got louder, and so did my stomach, so I knew that I would really have to focus on what was going on.

"We only have forty bucks left Mia, who is going to pretend to win a competition for someone else when they're only getting paid twenty dollars each?" I asked seeing the flaws in her plan. And the fact that my stomach wanted to keep that forty dollars for lunch wasn't helping.

That's when she pointed to this weird looking guy with spiky hair looking at picture of the pink ranger in a magazine… Or I think… It wasn't really looking, it was more like… He was infatuated with it or something like that.

Nodding my head I agreed, knowing that it was a mistake anyway. 

Still the thought of agreeing because I might get some food after this was all over with, was worth it, "Fine but what happens when they get on stage and the guys figure out that it's not us?"

"That's easy we talk to the people in charge and make sure we go last. By the time the guys figure it out, and Jayden explains everything, Prom will be over,"

Taking a deep breath I followed her, away from the sushi, and over to the guy where she made the offer, "How would you like to have the chance of meeting the pink ranger?"

He was startled that we were actually talking to him and hid the magazine with the Pink ranger, but he still squeaked in excitement, "Really?!," before changing his voice back to normal, "Really?"

"Sure, but you have to do me and my friend a little favor… um?"

"Spike," He said holding out his hand, and knocking over his smoothie in the process, not that he noticed…

Smiling, Mia ignored the smoothie mishap and shook his hand, "Spike, do you think that you and one of your friends could maybe pretend to be me and my friend here," she gestured to me and I heard my stomach growl again before she finished her sentence, "in a fashion show?"

"Well… I don't know…" Spike scratched his head. My mind was screaming at me to leave and just forget the whole thing, drag Mia away before it was too late, but for some reason I stayed put. It was probably the fact that this was, after all, my only option.

Mike would be mad when he found out, but at this point he would be furious with me any way he found out because I had lied to him...

Mia took out the last forty bucks we had, "You'll meet her just before you go on and we'll give your friend this."

I knew that there was no way I was getting sushi now, with the fact that Spike grabbed the last of our money and ran away screaming, "Uncle Bulk! Uncle Bulk! Pink and Uncle and Bulk and Ranger! Uncle BULK!," after we told him where to meet us.

Needless to say we looked to each other for the umpteenth time today trying to figure out if we'd done the right thing.

"Why did you run away?" Kevin's voice came from behind us. Mia and I both turned white before we turned around, knowing just how close they were to catching us in the act.

I linked arms with Mike and Jayden, and Mia linked arms with Kevin and Jayden as we dragged them away.

"I really wanted to find this sushi vendor, Jayden why don't you buy us all some food from him?" I smiled.

Jayden looked a little suspicious, but he unlinked arms with me and got the food and we all ate as much as we could. Later, he mentioned that there was something familiar about the sushi vendor. He just couldn't quite put his finger on what it was though.

I just assumed that he'd eaten there before…


	4. Complications

AN: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

Complications

The sword is an extension of your body. It's something that's dangerous, exhilarating and sometimes even beautiful… When it's in the right hands.

Mike took another swing at me, and I dodged it just in time, knocking him over in the process. I assumed the fight was over, but I suddenly found myself on the ground with him on top of me… Sword training was going to be the death of me if things kept up like this.

"Care to make things interesting?" He smirked.

"H-How?" my voice wasn't as strong as I would have liked for it to be…

Mike rested his forehead on mine, and I felt just a little too comfortable with everything, I knew that he was just a little too close... And… I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I kept my eyes locked with his. Would he really…

"If I win, you tell me something about your Romeo," He said.

Oh… Right, I had forgotten about that completely. I'd been so busy training Bulk and Spike that I hadn't even thought about that.

It was a lot of fun training them to take on this beauty contest and they had been pretty good at getting things down. As long as the dresses looked poofy, they wore wigs, and they used those cute Chinese fans we picked out for them, there was no way anyone could tell that it wasn't us.

"Em? You okay?" Mike asked still hovering over top of me.

Nodding I apologized, "Sorry I was just thinking… What do I get if I win?"

The truth was I didn't want to know who Mike had a crush on, because well… I already knew that it had to be Mia. I mean who wouldn't be in love with Mia? But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I wanted Mike to be happy, and if there wasn't any doubt in my mind, I would end up helping them get together… And then I would probably have to leave the team, and stop talking to them both… And well yeah….

"How about… Oh! If you win we go to that ice cream shop you love so much, and I'll buy you anything you want," he smiled.

Boy did he know how to make me say yes.

"Anything?" I whispered.

"Anything," Mike smiled and I realized just how much I loved his smile, and just how much power he really had over me.

He got up, allowing me to regain my senses and get into a fighting stance. Fighting Mike was never easy. I always had to focus even harder on him then I did my other opponents, because one hesitation, one moment of me thinking about the fact that I didn't want to hurt him, or that he looked so serious and adorable with how hard he was working, and I would be on the floor with a wooden sword next to my neck.

Ducking I felt the wind sweep over top of me as Mike swung his sword. Seizing the opportunity I used my own sword to take a swipe at his knees knocking him to the ground. But Mike was quick and rolled away before my sword came close to him a second time.

I took my time and regained my breath as I let Mike get back into position. He was fighting harder than usual. But I guess that's to be expected. With something at stake he always tries a little harder because that was the way he operates. I on the other hand kind of just let my movements flow and whatever happens, happens.

Still, seeing Mike try so hard made me smile because I knew he was having fun with trying to figure out what I was going to do next and how to counter it.

This is probably what made us the best sparring partners. I was unpredictable, and he always adapts his strategy to whatever has been thrown his way.

My breathing got harder, and I could feel the sweat starting to dribble down my face, but we were still locking swords battling for the advantage.

Finally, he took the advantage lunged forward with his sword and I found that I hadn't reacted to his movement like I should have and I ended up losing my footing.

"Careful," Mike grabbed me before I had the chance to get too close to the ground, of which I was very thankful for.

"Thanks," I mumbled, my heart pumping so hard that I was sure it was about to burst. It was funny how my heart sped up ten times more when I felt his touch, than it had when I was fighting him.

"So… I guess this means I won," Mike said in a monotone voice.

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, because I was sure he'd be happy. After all, he had been working so hard, and he had finally beaten me. That and he got what he wanted.

I laughed, still trying to catch my breath and get my heart to calm down, "You've been working really hard lately, I'm not surprised you beat me."

He shook his head, "Nah, that's not why, you're just having an off day."

I smiled up at him, my breathing finally back to normal, well at least as normal as it could be with Mike's strong arms around me.

"HEY!" It was Antonio. Apparently, the sushi vendor had ended up being someone Jayden knew. It was actually his oldest friend, who turned out to be the gold ranger. He's a pretty cool person.

"Hey," I smiled.

"Um, I'm not interrupting am I," he asked coming closer.

I was confused at first, but then I remembered that I had Mike's arms around me and I blushed as I pushed away.

"No," Mike looked down at the grass.

Confused I stared at him, he had won, so wasn't he supposed to ask me all sorts of questions or whatever and tell Antonio to come back later? At least, I know that's what he normally would have done. Was there something wrong?

I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off by Antonio.

"Okay, good, because I need to talk to her," Antonio said before he grabbed my arm and led (really it was more like dragged) me away from the training grounds.

When we finally stopped running I had to catch my breath for a second, but Antonio had barely broke a sweat. In fact he was already ready for action having pulled out a notebook and a pen ready to take notes on whatever I said.

Still breathing hard, I asked, "What's goin-going on?"

"Oh, I just have a few questions, you know since I'm trying to get to know everyone better," Antonio said in his normal cheery way, making it sound like the questions were about me.

I sat on the ground to rest, then finally I was able breathe again and so I nodded, "Ask away."

"What kind of flowers do Mia like? What's her idea of the perfect date? Does she like someone? What's her favorite food? Her favorite color- Oh, wait that's probably pink since she's the pink ranger right? What-"

"Whoa! Slow down there, why all these questions about Mia?" and then my mind came to a conclusion, so I had to ask, "Do you like her or something?"

I thought it was cute, and it was sort of great. This would secretly make the whole Mike liking her thing go away and I wouldn't have to worry about the two being together later on, and I could just be happy for Mia. It's not like Mike was in love with her or anything right?

"Huh? No, no, no, see there's this guy I know who wants to ask her to that Prom thing you guys are going to-"

Panic started to set in, was Mike the friend? No, he probably would have said something about Prom by now, but there was still the subject of…

"Who told you about Prom?"

"Well, Jayden, but only after I had figured it out. You guys aren't really that great at keeping things secret, what with sneaking off to see that bald guy and the kid with spiky hair," Antonio smiled proudly at his detective skills.

"Who else knows?" I hesitated on asking, but I had to know…

"Calm down, Jayden told me that you don't want Mike to know, so he doesn't," Antonio tried to calm me down, but I still needed to know who else knew. It wasn't just my secret at stake. It was Mia's too.

Trying to get a few more answers, I stood up and crossed my arms, making myself look like I was dead serious about this, and I was, "Who else knows?"

"Emily, just relax," he put his arm on my should, but I shrugged it off, "I know you're all upset about telling Mike because you don't want to hurt him, but I think that if you told him he would understand and support you, just like the rest of us are."

That made me feel a little better, but I was starting to feel a little sick to my stomach, maybe I should tell Mike…

"So, about Mia?" Antonio asked again, his pen and paper ready.

"She likes pink carnations, and she absolutely loves chocolates. Her ideal date is having a picnic on the beach... Let's see, her favorite color is actually purple not pink, and that's all I'm saying," caving I spilled, but I only said as much as I knew Mia would want me to. A guy has to have a little help, right? Everything else though, was up to whoever was going to ask her to Prom.

Antonio grinned, "That's all I really need, thanks," and then he was gone.

Shaking my head, I walked back to the dojo. I knew that I needed to talk to someone about Mike, and since Jayden was the first one I saw when I got inside, I decided to see what he thought.

"Are you okay, Emily?" Jayden asked looking up from his meditation.

Shaking my head again, I sat next to him and spilled everything, except for the fact that I liked Mike and was jealous of his Juliet. Ugh… Why did I even have to call her Juliet.

"Well… I think you should just be honest with him," Jayden said.

"Even if he gets really mad at me and makes it so that I can't go? Don't forget I'm not the only one wrapped up in this lie. If I can't go, Mia can't go either, and I can't do that to her," I explained, and I was starting to feel even worse about the whole thing.

Running a hand through his hair Jayden thought for a moment, "Well, maybe you should talk to Mia about it. I mean maybe she would be okay if-"

"But that's just it, she wouldn't be okay, but she would say that she was and then she'd be all depressed and everything the day of Prom. And there's this guy who's going to ask her and everything, and I just can't-"

I started to cry, this had all gotten so out of hand. If I didn't lie to Mike, I was hurting Mia, and if I didn't hurt Mia I was lying to Mike. Then there was the guy who had a crush on Mia, this had to be his only chance to ask her out, and then there was Bulk and Spike who Mia and I had grown quite attached to…

Jayden wrapped me in a hug, "It'll be okay Emily, just do what you think is best."

Only there wasn't a best.

"Emily, what's wrong?" chimed Mia's voice as she hurried to my side as did the other rangers who had just come in from training. Taking a deep breath I pulled myself together.

"It's nothing you guys," I said and forced my way past them, only to have someone grab my arm and hold me back.

It was Mike, he looked into my eyes with this concerned look. But I wasn't ready to say anything, so I just stared back, trying to make him understand. I guess that would have been a little easier if it hadn't been so obvious that I had been crying only seconds before.

"Let her go," Jayden ordered in his normal monotone voice.

Mike looked at him and then back at me before he let go. I could tell that he wasn't happy about it. I could tell that he was upset that I didn't want to talk to him, when normally I told him everything. If only he knew all the secrets I kept… I wondered if he would even talk to me after this was over, and if he did, if things would ever be the same…

AN: Read and Review! By the way, in your review tell me who you want Mia's mystery prom date to be and I might make it happen.


	5. To the Beach

A.N.: Gah! Sorry I haven't updated in like forever, but I had three injuries and a surgery over the summer that left me unable to do much of anything. I'll try to update the next chapter as soon as I can to make up for the long break! Sorry! OH! And I do not own Power Rangers Samurai.

To the Beach

I walked into the kitchen and went straight to the freezer to pick out my favorite ice cream. It was going to be a scorcher today, so I knew that I needed something cool to start my day with. Sure, ice cream in the morning wasn't the best idea, but I figured after all the stuff I had to deal with the last few days ice cream was more than allowed for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert, and whenever else I decided to eat it.

"Yuck, how can you eat that this early?" Kevin asked shaking his head as he entered the kitchen.

He yawned letting me know he had just woken up. I had hoped to avoid him by getting up earlier then everyone else, but I guess I must have woken him up too.

Smiling, I grabbed a bowl, a spoon and the ice cream scooper, "Because it's ice cream and it tastes good."

He rubbed his eyes and shook his head again, "Hey, to each his own. Do we still have eggs in the fridge or did Mia use them all last night in her… whatever that was."

I grimaced remembering tasting Mia's latest creation…

"Master Ji probably has some in his personal fridge," I said as I starting scooping out the ice cream.

Kevin was fully awake after that, "Master Ji has a personal fridge?!"

Scooping out some more ice cream I nodded, "He stalks it whenever he knows me or Mia is cooking."

In the back of my mind I agreed with Master Ji stocking up his fridge whenever I cooked seeing as how many mishaps usually happened when I was cooking, but that didn't mean I had to be happy about it. After all, I was a pretty good cook once I got passed all the dropping and flinging and messmaking.

"Do you think he has sandwich stuff in there too? We're doing this picnic on the beach thing later," Kevin said watching as I put yet another scoop of ice cream in my bowl.

The picnic on the beach thing rang clear in my head, but before I could ask Kevin anything about it someone grabbed me from behind, "BOO!"

I jumped letting out a squeak, and watched as my ice cream went flying through the air.

"Mike!" I hissed glaring at him crossing my arms, but I couldn't but smile, especially since my ice cream had landed on him.

He'd been so distant since the whole scene with me and Jayden. He didn't even ask me any questions about my mystery crush which was weird since I figured he'd be all over that subject after having won the bet.

"Awe man, Em I have to watch you all the time don't I?" He laughed looking at the ice cream that had landed on his shoulder.

Laughing I scooped it off of him and then into the sink, "It was your fault this time, not mine."

"What! You totally chucked that at my head!" He laughed.

Crossing my arms I stifled a laugh, and I watched him smirk when I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"So, what are you up so early for?" Kevin cut in, and I realized I had almost forgotten he was there.

Mike cleaned himself of the rest of the ice cream and then answered, "I'm helping Jayden with the picnic thing."

"You okay?" Mike asked as he caught me gazing out into the distance.

Quickly I nodded, "So this picnic thing was Jayden's idea?"

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, it's some sort of plan Antonio cooked up, I don't know all the details just that- OW!"

Kevin had "accidently" stepped on Mike's foot.

Cocking my head to the side I gave them the look that said to tell me everything they knew. Instead they looked off in different directions.

"Seriously, how can you eat ice cream this early?" Kevin finally shook his head changing the subject and went through some of the cupboards trying to find some cereal the team hadn't completely demolished. Cereal seemed to be the only thing the team every really go to eat because warm meals were... not always edible...

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the carton of ice cream from the freezer and attempted to make take two of my ice cream Sunday.

"You know you should try some, it wouldn't kill you to get a little off track every now and then," Mike countered for me.

I giggled as I put in the last scoop and turned to put the ice cream back in the freezer.

Kevin shook his head, "The day I do something **that** out of the ordinary will be the day you ask," he glanced at me and then quickly changed what he was going to say, leaving me very much in the dark, "Antonio if he will make you those sweddish fish candy things you eat all the time instead of sushi."

After I laughed, I wanted to press further on what Kevin really meant to say, but then Jayden walked in and yawned asking us what were all talking about. After a few minutes it was like I wasn't even there, because they got so involved in discussing the beach picnic and all their crazy ideas that I got very bored of, since it wasn't really my place to help with the whole thing. That and plus I couldn't understand what they were talking about since they were using code names for everything.

Drizzling chocolate syrup on my ice cream I took pleasure in my creation excited to dig right in, but I decided it would be best to leave the guys alone.

As nice as the thought sounded when I tripped and my bowl of ice cream drenched in chocolate syrup landed on Mike's face, I realized it probably wasn't the best idea.

Syrup dripped on Mike's face as the others laughed.

I flew to the paper towels and then to the sink, and finally to Mike's side as I apologized about a gazillion times and tried to clean up the mess I had made.

"Em!" he shouted so that I would quiet myself and listen, "it's okay," he laughed.

He grinned one of his grins that make my heart leap out of my chest as he proceeded to take the paper towel from my hand and wipe his face.

"Whoa? Did I? Did I miss something?" Mia asked as she came into the room seeing Mike covered in ice cream and chocolate goo.

"Oh, just Emily being Emily for the second time today," Kevin said as he went back to the cupboard to search a second time for cereal. Seeing Mia must have reminded him that he was starving and that he would rather be eating something before she offered to cook something.

I watched the light in Jayden's eye light up when he saw her and watched as he greeted her with a nervous voice, "Oh Hey Mia? How are you this morning? Did you sleep well? This is about the time you usually get up isn't it?"

I also managed to glance at Mike who seemed a little self-absorbed. It was almost like he was in the middle of making a decision and not sure what to do.

If only I could talk to him again. I hated not knowing what was going on in his mind just like I hated the fact that I couldn't tell him what was going on in mine. Would my friendship with Mike ever be the same after this was over?

I looked at Mike… It seemed I had to make a decision myself.

Sighing, I gave up on ice cream for breakfast and walked back to my room, and laid down feeling the heat envelop me. It was only six in the morning and already the heat was here. I groaned and got back up again deciding to dress in a tank top and shorts and then went about my daily routine as if nothing had happened, only catching a few whispers here and there from the guys who were all excited about going to the beach.

I had to admit that when the time came to leave for the beach I was just as glad as they were to grab my bathing suit a jump into the water. Of course before that I had to make sure Mike was okay, that's why I traded places with Antonio telling him to take my place in Jayden's four seat jeep, and that I would go with Mike in his sports car.

Nervously Mike looked to me as I entered, "Hey."

I smiled, but on the inside I felt horrible, I had a feeling he was going to spill everything he was hiding, but instead, he brought up a subject I didn't expect, "You never told me about you Romeo."

Looking up at the ceiling of his car, I figured he would lead to something about the picnic or him liking Mia after I answered a few questions, "What do you want to know?"

"Do you love him?" he asked looking at me with piercing eyes, letting me know he was serious.

I had to look away, but I had told so many lies, that I knew I had to be honest with him, "Yes, but I know that he doesn't feel the same way, and he never will after he finds out what I…"

"Finds out what?" he asked putting the car in drive, knowing that if we were too far behind the others they'd think something bad had happened. Still he drove slower then usual.

"It's a long story…" I said not willing to say anything about Prom. I couldn't. Not yet.

I saw his jaw clench, but he moved on, "Is he the kind of guy that never forgives?"

"No, he's stubborn, but he's forgiving. And he's sweet and loyal. And he's all the things I could ask for and more, and he's sort of a rebel and a little unorganized, but that's what makes him so spontaneous and interesting," I said wondering if he knew that he was the person I was describing.

"But you can't trust him with whatever it is your hiding from him?" he asked again.

If I didn't think he liked Mia I would have thought that he was jealous and was trying to ruin my Romeo's credibility. But I doubted that was possible.

"It's not just my secret. Someone else's happiness is at stake, and as much as I want to tell him, I know what he'll do and say about the whole thing," was my response.

"And you can't tell me either…" he let his guard down, and I could hear the hurt sound in his voice.

"I want to tell you more than anyone, but it's not my secret to tell…" I said, but I knew that didn't help. And we rode in silence for the last ten minutes of the drive.

We parked and he pulled out a carefully wrapped box from the glove compartment and handed it to me.

"It's a birthday present. I forgot to give it to you a while ago, but here," was all he said and before I could say anything or even open it he was out the door.

I opened it quickly and found a necklace with the letter E. The E was lined with diamonds. I looked up to find where he had gone to, only to see him out on the waves. I put it on, hoping that maybe I could restore what little we had left of our friendship and ran off to join the others.


	6. Fishies!

Fishies!

Emily's POV

I sat down by the fire Antonio just made. The later it go the colder it got out at the beach, and I was a little tired. Jayden and Mia were off taking a walk, Antonio just got back in the freezing water with the fishes. Kevin fell asleep an hour ago in Jayden's car (he's used to going to bed early) and Mike was…

Mike was staying as far away from me as possible. But I didn't know if it was because he was mad at me or if he was upset about the whole Jayden Mia thing. Jayden had asked her out as soon as we go to the beach and I realized that the whole thing had been about them the whole time.

Looking back it made a lot of sense. Who else would Jayden ask to scout out thing Mia like, but Antonio? Also, the whole fact that he knew about Prom this entire time...

I assumed that Mia saying yes was also why Mike was so upset. And I hated it. He hadn't been himself for a long time. He hadn't even pulled a prank or even anyone while he was swimming.

If only...

I sighed and let myself fall back onto the sand.

The stars were so pretty. When I was little my family and I would spend almost every weekend in the summer camping. It was great. Until we had to go to bed.

My sister and I were always kept awake by the sounds outside. So, my Dad came up with an idea. He built a fire and we slept outside under the stars. There we could see what was making the noise, like the owls in the tree, or the crickets jumping around, and we had our own personal night light: the stars.

They've comforted me ever since because they lit up the sky and revealed the truth. The truth that I should be revealing now…

I turned my head to look at Mike.

I closed my eyes and then gathered all the strength I could. Getting up, I bit my lip. What if he hated me for keeping everything secret from him? And what if he demands that I tell him who I'm in love with…? Or worse… What if he keeps Jayden and Mia from their first date?

I looked back at the fire. This was all my fault. I should have went straight to Master Ji and asked to go to Prom. Then he would have said no and none of this would have…

No, I already knew, this whole thing maybe turned out bad for me, but it was great for Mia. And Mike would forgive her eventually, but I was his best friend. How could I keep something like this from him?

And I knew that it didn't work out for me because the truth was I didn't belong here with the Power Rangers, with Mike… I never had.

So that night I made a promise to myself. This was the last time I was ever going to talk to Mike. And I was only going to talk to him so that I could make sure he was okay. Then I was leaving the Power Rangers for good. I'd hide out somewhere until my sister got better, and then I would go home and she would take my place. After all no one would really miss me… Eventually, I would put them all in danger somehow anyway, being the klutz that I was.

Looking back up at the stars I silently asked for the strength to be able to do this. To be able to walk away, and do the right thing. I suppose it didn't matter much, it wasn't like I could keep this up much longer.

Nodding to myself sadly, I walked towards Mike, "Hey, you okay?"

He just shook his head. He didn't usually talk when he was upset, instead he liked to be on his own, away from everyone else. It was easier for him to figure things out that way.

"Em…" He started, but his voice then fell silent and we stood there for a long time, not saying a word.

So… I broke the silence, "I'm sorry."

Mike shook his head, "You didn't-"

"I'm sorry I can't tell you everything," I cut him off, and then I turned so that I faced him, "And I'm sorry about Mia and Jayden. And I'm sorry," I took a breath and looked down at my feet.

The stars overhead were screaming at me. Closing my eyes I let a tear slide down my face, but I refused to let anymore out, not yet.

I had to say it. I had to tell him.

"I'm sorry that Mia and Jayden are together. I know you really cared about her. And…I'm sorry that I couldn't be her for you…"

The tears just started coming out, I couldn't hold them back anymore, and my legs just started running. I didn't even know where I was going. I heard yelling behind me, but I couldn't make out the words. All I knew was that I had no place with the Rangers anymore. Mike was the only one… And now, no matter what I did, I knew I'd lost him forever.

Mike's POV

There was nothing I could do. I called after her, I chased after her, but she was so fast…

Where had she learned to run like that?

There was nothing I could do to catch up with her. Soon, I collapsed into the sand, I was out of breath and she was gone. There was nothing I could do.

Feeling like that… It reminded me of how weak I really was. Not even being a Ranger could take that helpless feeling away. Even when you were strong, you were still…

"GAH!" I punched the sand. If I had known that she…

"Was that Emily?" Mia called running towards me, as worried as ever.

"She told-" I struggled to catch my breath, "She told me that she- And then she just took off- Because she thought…" I looked out towards where she ran off. She could get hurt out there on her own. She could…

Mia shook her head, "She was nervous about telling you about the whole Prom thing, but now everyone knows, so that's good. She's probably back at the dojo. You should tell her that you want her to go, and if you don't I'll kick your butt, you hear me."

My eyes widened and I couldn't help, but ask, "Prom?"

Mia covered her mouth instantly, her eyes were even bigger than mine. That was what she was so afraid of telling me about. That was her secret. That she was going to Prom?

"Emily and I, we…" Mia was trying to find the words, but I suddenly understood.

Slowly I put everything together. Emily didn't want me to know because of what had happened when I was around my friends, and how they got hurt. And with the disappearances of those girls who were going to their Proms…

I put my head in my hands and sunk down into the sand.

Then I quickly sat back up, I knew I had to find her. She thought I was going to be mad at her. That I was going to tell her not to go. My eyes made their way to Mia.

And she thought I would make things crazy for Mia and Jayden.

How could I have been so stupid? I shouldn't have pushed her… I should have been more understanding. More open. Did she really think that I would have been upset with her? And why did she think that I…?

"I'm going to see if I can find her. I might be gone for a while though so tell Master Ji it's all my fault. I don't want Em to get in trouble for this," I told her.

Mia nodded and watched as I took off towards my car.

Fumbling with the key I got in and hurried out of the parking lot. With the way her mind works I knew she wasn't just back sulking at the dojo. She was gone.

Emily…

Please, please, let me find her…

Antonio's POV

Fishy, fishy, oh, my wonderful little fishies. I smiled. Being in the water felt great. I got to swim with all the fishies.

This day couldn't get better. I got to spend all day with my friendly fishies!

That wasn't even the best part. Sure it was on most days, but not today no.

Because Jayden would stop talking to me about how in love he was, because he'd be with Mia. And Emily and Mia were going to have so much fun at their Prom this week. Everything always works out for us Power Rangers, yes sir-ie.

I take this moment to happily glance at the shore to see all my friends and they're happy faces. Only when I looked to shore I didn't see happy faces. I saw Mia crying and Jayden looking angry with his angry face and staring at the fire. Kevin was still sleeping-he fell asleep after I told that story about the big fishy, the biggiest fishy I ever caught! Ah fishies! Oh, right, I wasn't supposed to be concentrating on the fish I was supposed to be thinking about how Mia and Emily were suddenly missing.

Something told me that something very bad had happened. Then it hit me. Stupid wave!

But the wave got me thinking. Waves tend to happen after something causes them.

Had Emily told Mike? And had he really ruined everything?

Awe, no! I had to get to shore.

I was angry when I got out of the water, and I was ready to kick some butt. Mike was going to be happy, even if the Gold ranger had to throw some sushi at him!

"Antonio, I think I did something wrong. Mike said that Emily told him something and she took off. I thought she finally caved about Prom, so I ended up telling him about it and… Anyway Emily is missing and-"

"It's my fault. As the team leader I shouldn't have let things get so out of hand. I shouldn't have-"

"You guys need to quit blaming yourselves for what Mike and Emily did. They did what they did, and now it's our job to knock some sense into them," I walked over to my cart a few feet away, the one I take everywhere, and grabbed a cold clammy fish, "Gold ranger style!"

Kevin's POV

ZZZZZZZ…

"Big Fishy. Must catch big fishy."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

A.N.: lol, who else loves Antonio and his fishies!? Anyway, guess who we haven't seen in a while.

Bulk and Spike, of course. But what do they have to do with Emily in hiding? (*hint hint*)


	7. Finding Emily

Finding Emily

Mike's POV

I felt absolutely horrible. I wasn't really sure what was going on, all I knew was that I had to find Emily, and ask her what she meant about saying she wished she had been Mia for me. I didn't understand what she meant by that at all. Why would she want to be Mia?

Was it because she thought that I cared about Mia the way Jayden did? Did that mean that she…?

I slunk my shoulders as I finally returned to the dojo. It was really late and I was really tired. I'd looked all over for Emily, but I couldn't find her anywhere.

There were so many questions I had to ask her, and I had to apologize for not making her feel like she couldn't talk to me about Prom. The whole thing was really just one big mess.

"If someone doesn't explain to me why I'm covered in fish guts, and why there's a message on the table for Mike about being nicer to Emily and letting her go to Prom-whatever that is-I'm going to make everyone clean out the shed tomorrow!" Master Ji's voice shook.

I passed the living room, so focused on my thoughts that I didn't notice master Ji.

I could understand why he was so upset, I didn't want to be covered in fish guts either, but I didn't really understand what was going on any better than he did. So, I shrugged.

But I opened my mouth anyway and came up with the best lie I could, "Uh, me and Emily got in a fight because I wouldn't take her to Prom, the guys must have been trying to knock some sense into me."

Because a lie was better than the shed.

I grimaced just thinking about all the wacked out stuff that was in there. Everything was piled up to the ceiling and everything was heavy or covered in some sort of ooze that reminded me of Mia's cooking…

"Uh huh... I come in here to check on all of you and I get a bucket full of fish guts poured on my head. And you didn't even come home until five seconds ago. Lying and being a samurai do not mix well."

Sighing I looked down, "I don't really know. Emily just told me that she thought I cared about Mia and that she wished she was Mia and then she took off. Then Mia mentioned something about her not wanting to tell me about Prom, because I probably would have been upset and told her not to go. Even though she should go and have fun for one last time, and… Everything is just a mess that I don't understand."

"I see," Master Ji said and wiped some fish guts of his face, "I figured something like this would happen eventually. You and Emily have always been very close. However, Emily does not think very much of herself. She probably thought that you cared more about someone else, in this case, Mia. She also decided that the secret she was hiding would ruin your friendship. Seeing as she couldn't share the secret with you and the fact that you were the only one she really bonded with on the team, she felt like she didn't belong anymore. It was only a matter of time before she could no longer keep up with all the lies and secrets, so she left."

"But that's crazy. Emily definitely belongs on the team, she's the yellow ranger!"

"She wasn't always. Her sister was the one who was chosen, not her," Master Ji explained.

Thinking about it and taking into consideration the way Emily thinks, I realized he was right, "But it doesn't matter. She's one of us no matter what now. Even if her sister does get better and rejoins the team, she's still a ranger. Antonio would just make her sister the silver ranger or the purple ranger or something."

Master Ji shook his head, "We know that, but Emily doesn't."

Master Ji wasn't helping me at all; he just made me anxious... Where the heck was she? There was only one thing I wanted to do now. Talk to Emily. I just needed to find her and I needed help.

"I need to go talk to Antonio. Maybe he could help me figure out where she ran off to, maybe he can even track her down like he did with Jayden," I said and started walking towards the rooms.

"You can tell Antonio he's in big trouble for the fish guts while you're at it. Also don't forget to tell Emily everything when you find her. Because if you don't tell her how much you care about her now, she might just find someone else."

I nodded and walked away, but I felt cold. Master Ji had been trying for weeks to get me to tell Emily that I love her. He was the only one who had figured it out. But why would he say something like that? Emily find someone else? First of all I wasn't even sure that she… I didn't want to even think about her with someone else.

Pounding on Antonio's door I thought about it. Emily with someone else. Emily with Kevin, or Antonio…

Antonio opened the door, and I had the strongest urge to beat him to a bloody pulp.

"I need your help to find Emily, but I am the one who's going to go get her, understand? Besides you're in trouble with Master Ji," I said trying to sound calm, but I knew that I couldn't help but raise my voice and grit my teeth.

Who knows, maybe it was lack of sleep. Maybe it was my desperation to find Emily and find out why she said what she did. Or maybe, just maybe it was jealousy caused by Master Ji's words.

"She's still not back yet!" Antonio said with alarm, and then thought about what I said and looked over me, "Master Ji didn't happen to walk into my trap did he? Because that was meant to knock some sense into you. Whatever you did to Emily-"

"Find her!" I shouted a little louder than I should have.

"Alright, calm down," Antonio said pulling out his cell phone.

I watched him turned a sickly white, "Her samuraizer isn't available."

"Translation?"

"Either she turned off her morpher or it's broken." Antonio said.

My first thought was that she doesn't want to be found, but then… What if Dayu had gotten to her? Or worse…

Suddenly sleep seemed the last of my worries and I ran outside and into the city. Emily… Where are you? You have to have left me a sign or something. Please Emily, I need a sign. I need to find you.

Emily's POV

I smirked as I turned up the music and started dancing my way around Bulk and Spike's kitchen. They'd just gone out to get ice cream. I couldn't believe how great they had been letting me crash for the night and everything. They even let me sleep with their mascot to make me feel better since I was still crying. They listened to me when I explained things. Well... Most things... And they made me laugh.

I don't really know how I ended up and Bulk and Spike's, it just sort of happened. I was running, and I turned off my communicator to make sure no one found me. Not that I thought anyone would want to find me anyway, but I didn't really feel like talking about things and saying I quit and everything, because right now, I just couldn't handle all that.

Humming along with the song, I wiped some of the smoothie Spike had tried to make off the countertop. It was so funny because he was all like, I wonder what this button does and then Bulk turned around and the whole thing ended up in Bulk's face. I smiled.

laughed, remembering how I'd gotten ice cream all over Mike. Bulk and Spike were so much like me.

Sighing I slowed down to the beat and turned the music down as I thought more about what had happened. I made my decision, no regrets right?

Bulk and Spike agreed with me on leaving and taking some time away from my friends, but they said that running from things never worked. I rolled my eyes. They were the two guys who ran away every time a Nighlok showed up, even though they were supposed to be samurai. And yet… They were right. I would have to go face everyone eventually.

I just knew how mad everyone would be when I explained everything about prom.

Master Ji would scold me. Mia wouldn't want to talk to me for a while, Jayden would give me the look that means I did something wrong because I would have ruined the day for them too. Kevin and Antonio would just sort of walk away and Mike… Mike would never talk to me or trust me again.

He would probably avoid me like the plague too knowing that I liked him. Well at least I didn't tell him that I loved him, but… Saying that I wished that I was the girl he cared about was pretty close.

I bit my lip and tried to drown out my thoughts in the music again. If only… If only Mike loved me and I didn't scheme with Mia to go to Prom.

That would be the life.

Finally I decided to turn off the music and grab the make-up Mia and I had bought for Bulk and Spike. There was no point in it anymore. Since I knew Mia would have probably told everyone everything by now. I took it and I threw it, bouncing it off the wall and making a mess of liquids and powder on the floor.

That was me. I was a mess. A mess that didn't deserve to be cleaned up. I looked closer at the make-up mess, but I didn't get to formulate any thoughts because there was a knock at the door.

Mike's POV

The others were driving me crazy. Not one of them was out here trying to help me find her, Emily could be in danger and they just…

Jayden and Mia said that she would be back before the Prom and Kevin agreed with them. At least Antonio was on my side, but when things came down to it he decided to help the othesr trick Dayu into taking Mia to where all the other girls were that had been kidnapped at Prom. That way we could get to the bottom of the disappearances a little faster.

Still, I couldn't just go help and pretend that Emily wasn't out there by herself. I checked everywhere. I checked the place down by the creek where we would meditate together or go just to get away from everyone else and talk, I called her sister to find out if she'd gone home, I even went into all of her favorite shops, and finally her favorite ice cream store, with no luck.

Ugh… What was I supposed to do? She just up and left. She didn't give me enough time to ask what was going on.

I hated the fact that she felt like she couldn't talk to me. Ever since the Prom thing had started, she distanced herself. When she did, I tried to get her to talk, and then I saw her crying with Jayden, so I tried to give her space, but I couldn't stand doing that, and then I pushed her too hard. This whole thing was all my fault.

I should have fought harder. I should have made her tell me why she was crying. I should have trained harder so that I could have caught her when she ran. But most of all I should have made sure she knew that no matter what I would always care about her and that she would always be one of us.

Everything inside me was screaming and I knew that I just needed to talk to her, I just didn't have any clue where she was.

Shaking my head I came out of the ice cream shop and punched the tree sitting in front of it. This was getting me nowhere. I had to think like Emily, but I wasn't even sure where she would go when she was upset like this. I know she would go see someone she trusted, but...

I had to concentrate, there must have been something I was missing. Something that I could pick up on, but what?

That's when I saw a really skinny guy with spiky hair and a bald guy walking down the street carrying three ice cream cones. And one of ice cream cones was Emily's favorite.

I debated about it in my head for a few minutes, but then I decided to roll with it. She'd been sneaking out and keeping secrets from me. Maybe she knew them somehow? I at least had to try, I was already out of options anyway.

I followed them home, and watched as the spikey haired one dropped Emily's favorite ice cream.

"Oh no! Emily's ice cream!" he said, "Uncle Bulk we have to-"

But I had heard enough, and was already in the process of tying them up. Symbol powers are really amazing sometimes.

Tightening the green knot I asked, "Emily's inside?"

"Wh-Who are you?" the bald one asked.

The spiky haired one just cried, scared out of his mind. Who were these people? Wait... aren't these two guys who always seem to be around when there's a nighlock attack?

"If you hurt her, I'm your worst nightmare!" I hissed and then finished the knot and quickly ran to the door.

"This is all your fault," I heard the bald one snap, and the two started arguing, but I was already pre-occupied. That's when she opened the door.

I embraced her, but she pushed away.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Me?!" I nearly exploded, "I'm not the one who… It doesn't matter. It just matters that your safe. And… I'm-"

She slammed the door and I heard a thunk, "Leave!"

Emily's POV

I turned around and allowed myself to fall into the door and slide down.

My sister was supposed to be the Yellow ranger not me. I was continually trying to fill someone else's shoes, to be this ranger… this protector of justice… But… That was because I thought I needed to.

Everyone had bullied me, convinced me that I was a nobody. Being a Samurai ranger… It made me think that maybe, just maybe I was good at something.

The truth is, I wasn't even supposed to be a ranger. I wasn't supposed to even meet Mike.

Maybe things would be easier if I hadn't.

"EMILY!" I heard him banging on the door, "Emily! Please open up. I've been up all night trying to find you. Mia told me about Prom. Please open up! We need to talk! I'm not… I'm not mad at you…"

Mike… Why don't you just leave me alone? It would be so much easier if you did.

"Emily! You can't… You can't just give up because of all this. You're a ranger like no one else. You're strong and kind and you're… You're the best Emily. And we aren't going to let you just walk away. You're part of the team, no matter what!" Mike called pounding on the door once again.

My eyes went over to the make-up. I was a mess, a screw up. Besides Mike was only here because I was a ranger and rangers aren't supposed to give up like this. But he doesn't get it. I'm not a ranger at all. Not really anyway.

"Emily, we need you. I-I need you! Emily!" he pounded harder, but I wasn't moving, or saying a word.

"Emily!" He called one last time and then the banging stopped. I heard him mumble some cuss words and then I heard a loud thud and I wondered if he was sitting opposite me resting himself on the door like I was. Most of all I wondered why he was so upset. Could it be that he… NO, I wouldn't even let myself imagine that. Mike was my friend. That's all he would ever be.

"You guys don't need me, you need the real yellow ranger" I called. The truth… It hurts sometimes…

My resolve failed me after I said that. The tears just started coming and they wouldn't stop.

"Emily," his voice was muffled and quiet through the door, but I could still hear the sincerity, and I could imagine that he had a look of pity on his face. This was the part where he tells me how important I am to the team and blah, blah, blah. It was just all lies. I knew that most of all.

But before he could, his communicator went off.

"Em, it's Mia. Dayu has her."

What?

It was strange, but I found myself suddenly looking back at the mess of make-up I had made on Bulk and Spike's floor. The mess of goop swirled together and stained the floor. The colored powder of blues and greens and reds all came together and mixed in the cream colored liquid, and somehow it made me smile. A mess can still be a perfectly made mess right?

"Emily?"

Closing my eyes I took a deep breath. I was nowhere near perfect, but Mia was my friend and I had to at least try to help her. Because she needed me. Right there in that moment I was just like the make-up, I was a mess, but a pretty damn good one.

Then I closed my eyes and walked out the door.

Still not ready to face Mike, I looked down at my feet and said, "Let's go."

But eventually when I did find the strength to finally look up at him, I saw the puffy red eyes and the paleness of his skin. He looked horrible. Had I… No, it must have been Mia and Jayden's getting together that made him look like that.

I shook my head and ran after Mike while turning my Smuraizer back on.

'Jealousy is and evil thing,' I told myself, 'A very evil thing.'

Bulk's POV

Seriously!

"This, my young nephew, is why girls are not to be trusted," I said watching as that guy who tied us up ran off with Emily. What was his problem? All that mumbled yelled and banging on the door just gave me a headache.

"But Uncle Bulk, maybe she's in trouble?!" Spike yelled desperately struggling to free himself from the ropes.

"Please that guy couldn't even bust the door down with all that banging he did."

"Yeah, but he caught us!" Spike yelled back at me.

I huffed, "No, I'm just teaching you how to get out of ropes, this is your lesson of the day."

"Really? But how did you know that guy would come and-"

"There's no talking during the lesson!" I hissed.

How dare Spike question me, his great and noble teacher. He should be questioning those girls he got us involved with, I bet they don't even know the pink ranger. All girls suck. Especially the one that took Skull and left the country.

Okay, so maybe I'm over exaggerating since Skull didn't leave the country and lives just a couple blocks away, but still.

Stupid girls.


	8. Mia Missing?

AN: I do not own PRS or any of the power rangers franchise.

Now Mia's Missing?

Emily's POV

We reached the abandoned warehouse just in time to see the others making their entrance. I was about to run in after them, but Mike grabbed my arm and held me back signaling me to wait.

"Em, before we go in there I want to know that your okay," he said looking me straight in the eyes. I always hated when he does that because it means that I have to tell him the truth, even if I didn't want to.

"Yes and no," was as close as I could get though. I didn't really know what was going on myself. Maybe I was okay now, knowing that Mike wasn't upset over the whole Prom thing, but I still wasn't okay knowing how much he cared for Mia. I didn't think that I would ever be okay with that. I just couldn't be.

The more I looked at Mike the more I wanted to turn around and leave Mia in Dayu's hands. He looked absolutely horrible, and it was all her fault. And yet… she was my friend

"Yes and no?" Mike asked still trying to figure out what was going through my head, but I wasn't about to tell him. That really would ruin our friendship. There is no way I could face him knowing that he had rejected me to my face and that we could never be as close as we used to be. But… Maybe there wasn't even a chance of that now anyway… I was surprised he wasn't already weirded out by what I had said before I left.

I looked towards the warehouse, the sounds of the others fighting making me wish I was in there with them, "I'll be fine, I'm just worried about you. You don't look so great."

Mike blinked a coupled times and then scratched the back of his head, "I am a little tired," he said and then changed the subject, "But I still have to talk to you. What did you mean when you said that you wished you could be Mia?"

His eyes bore into mine and I felt like a deer in headlights. Did he really not know? Had my words really not been clear enough?

Thankfully, there was an explosion inside the warehouse and Mike and I were instantly at the scene ready for a fight.

We were just in time to see Jayden collapse, "She took Mia and escaped…"

I looked around, Antonio was helping out a few of the girls who were trapped behind the fire from the explosion and Kevin was busy explaining to the ones that were safe that they were well, safe.

I looked to Jayden for a few seconds, and then I looked down. I couldn't bring myself to look at Mike, to see the horror on his face because I knew that it would be the same as Jayden's. So I just stood there looking down at the floor and thought about Mia, my friend Mia being missing because that's what I needed to focus on. I needed to forget about my feelings for Mike. I had to.

A tear slipped from one of my eyes because I felt like the worst friend in the world. While I should have been trying to figure out what was going on with Mia and where she was, I was busy being jealous about the fact that she was what Mike wanted.

Then I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and one on my waist. Suddenly, I was wrapped in a warm embrace from behind.

Confusion and shock took over, but I didn't move. Mike's embrace, his head buried in my shoulder, his arms around me… They were the only things holding me together.

My hands moved to join his. And I knew everything was going to be okay. Sure Mike and I might never be a couple, but as long we could be close like this… Did it really matter?

Mike's POV

Maybe it was seeing her there looking so sad, maybe it was just the fact that I missed her so much, or maybe it was even the fact that I was just too tired to think straight, but I took Emily in my arms. She didn't move away or flinch, so I pulled her in close to me by changing my position from one hand on her shoulder, to two hands around her waist. When she still didn't respond I let myself go just a little bit further. I rested the side of my face on her shoulder and I closed my eyes.

I smiled a little. Her smell intoxicated me, and her warmth made feel like I was meant to be right there, with Emily in my arms forever.

"Guys, we need to focus on finding Mia. We will not rest until we do," Jayden finally stood and then he snapped at me, "That means you too Mike!"

I almost growled when I lifted my head up to glare at him. Who did he think he was? Sure, when Emily's missing he doesn't so much as lift a finger, but now that it's his girl everyone's supposed to be at his beck and call. Granted the circumstances were different, but still.

But… I had to agree with him. Right now wasn't really the best time for me to go all 'Emily I love you' on everyone. Still I just got her back, and her friend was missing, I had the right to comfort her a little.

I let go of Emily, reluctantly, and made my way over to him. I wanted to shout at him and hit him or something, but I refrained. After all, I understood what he felt like. He felt just like I had when I realized Emily could be in danger. Like his insides were inside a blender.

"You think I'm going to just let Mia get taken by Dayu and get away with it?" I hissed crossing my arms, "She's my friend too you know."

"I also know that you were up all night looking for Emily, and I'm not about to let you go home and take a nap!" Jayden seethed.

I felt her eyes on me, and I couldn't help but look at her. She was confused. Did she really not know how much I cared about her?

"Alright!" Antonio shouted, "It's time to get out here!" bringing us back to reality.

He was right, it was time to go. The building was about to collapse. The flames, the heat… I hadn't noticed before.

Man, I really don't function that great without some sleep.

I followed behind Emily making sure she didn't trip or fall on our way out. I couldn't risk losing her again. She's a little less clumsy in situations packed with danger, but I wasn't willing to take any chances.

When we were out of danger Antonio went to work on tracking down Mia. And I relaxed a little bit. Okay maybe a lot.

Lying on a large crate that was safely away from the burning building, I rested my eyes and then… I was asleep.

Emily's POV

Jayden growled and was about wake Mike up, but I stopped him, "He won't be any good to us if he's going to fall asleep on the battlefield. Besides, I'll wake him up before we leave. I promise."

It was easy could tell I felt guilty for being the reason Mike needed sleep in the first place.

"Whatever," Jayden said and then got out his sword to go smash a few boxes.

Relieved I looked around. Kevin was trying to help Antonio find Mia. I guess Dayu cloaked her with some sort of anti-tracking stuff before they left, but Antonio was hoping to get through it anyway.

Since I had no clue how to do anything Kevin and Antonio were working on that left me to my own devices. Which at this moment were worry and confusion and love and everything in between? They were things I didn't want to think about right now.

So instead of trying to think about Mike and Mia and myself I turned to watch him sleep. I giggled when I heard him start to snore.

How is it that guys can fall asleep just about anywhere?

I decided to sit down beside him, which is something I probably shouldn't have done because it made Mike wake up.

Mike's POV

I'm a pretty light sleeper, so when Emily sat beside me I jumped not remembering where I was. She frowned, letting me know she wasn't happy with herself for waking me up.

"Did I make Jayden upset?" I asked yawning and stretching my arms.

"A little," Emily said, but then she continued, "But I told him that I would be in charge of you so you could sleep a little. I'm sorry I woke you."

I nodded, but… Lack of sleep does funny things to you and makes you have really bad ideas, or maybe good ones. I don't know.

But I took Emily in my arms and made her lay down with me. She tensed, but I just snuggled in closer to her and closed my eyes.

"Mike?" she whispered unsure of what was going on.

I wanted to tell her that I just wanted her there with me in my arms, but…

"I'm cold," I lied and then I was asleep again.

Builk's POV

We finally got back inside our house after one of the girl scouts came by and untied the ropes, only to find a mess of make-up on our precious floor.

It was just sitting there staining the floor.

"SPIKE!" I yelled and he jumped to attention looking like he had no clue about the anger that I was about to pour out on him.

"Yes Uncle Bulk?" he said with a sweet smile and… I just couldn't do it.

"Where's the nail polish remover?" I asked hanging my head in defeat.

"In the freezer! I'll get it!" Spike exclaimed.

Emily and Mia really had made a mess of things, but at least they taught us how to use nail polish remover for getting stains out of white carpet.

Ugh. I hate girls.

I was afraid of the things. The make-up and all of it, but I was getting paid so I didn't care. Well you know what. Never again! Never again will I ever do a favor for any girl ever. I was going to put all that girly stuff in the trash where it belonged.

I smiled as I watched Spike grab the nail polish from the freezer. That's where he put everything that scared him or made him nervous. He would have put the make-up in the too if we didn't use it so often to practice for the competition.

Ugh! Girls, make-up, and competitions…

I hate all females forever and always.

That's when I heard a knock at the door and a girl scout was there to sell cookies. It was the same girl that we bought cookies from earlier to get out of the ropes. I told her to come back after we got inside so I could give her the money.

Rolling my eyes I pulled out my wallet and gave her the money, "I want that delivered as soon as possible."

The little girl smiled, "Thanks so much! We're raising money for my sister. She's sick, and this sale will really help a lot." She hugged me and I almost wanted to cry.

I took the rest of my money out and gave it to her. Poor thing.

"She's such a sweetheart," I said closing the door.

"Hey didn't she say that she didn't have a sister?" Spike asked.

I thought about it and I realized he was right. There was a little girl with her when she came the first time and we said if she wouldn't help us maybe her sister would and she said she didn't have a sister, she was an only child and the girl with her was just another scout.

I let my head hit the door and heard Spike laugh as hard as he could. That stupid nasally laugh.

I really hate girls…

AN: Bulk just can't seem to catch a break, ha ha. Well, read and review please


	9. What to do now?

What to do Now?

Emily's POV

"RRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!" Jayden hissed as he let his sword hit the crate Mike and I had fallen asleep on, causing it collapse and Mike and I to awake startled and suddenly very sore.

"Dude! What is your problem?!" Mike snapped.

"My problem? Mia is somewhere with Dayu right now, and all you do is make some moves on Emily!" Jayden snapped.

I shook my head, unsure of where Jayden was even coming from. Mike only thought of me as a friend and fellow ranger.

"Whaoh! Okay Jayden, I think it's time you had a time out," Antonio said as he and Kevin ran to where we were. They must have heard everything going on and rushed over to calm Jayden down.

Jayden growled, "A time out? A time out? The only one who needs a time out around here is Mike. He's been so busy trying to win over Emily that he's putting the team at risk. He's—"

"You know it's not like that! I've had about enough of this!" Mike snapped and moved to get up, but I held him back. He stopped, but he was still tense.

We were trying to focus on Mia, we really were, but there was nothing we could do right now. So, wasn't it better that we rest in order to get ready for whatever Dayu had planned?

"Okay Jayden, let's go for a walk," Kevin suggested, but Jayden shook his head and pointed his sword towards Mike.

Antonio stepped forward, "We all know your upset Jayden, but don't take it out on Mike."

"Why not? It's his fault Emily ran off. It's his fault we were two rangers short with our plan. So it's his fault Mia's missing," Jayden retorted, his sword dangerously close to Mike's neck.

I took a deep breath, "No, it's my fault," I let out a sob, "It's all my fault. If I had just talked to Mike earlier about everything, if I hadn't run away…" The tears started falling, and I couldn't hold them back.

"It's my fault we even thought about going to Prom!" I shouted and curled up into a ball, "And it's my fault we lied, and, and Mike…" my face was drenched in tears, and I couldn't even choke out the words I needed to say anymore. Which was probably a good thing since I might have confessed my feelings to Mike who apparently was clueless about them, even after I sort of confessed before.

"Emily," Mike whispered, "It's not—"

"Hey!" Antonio interrupted with a fist pump, "I found her!"

"Alright team, let's go," Kevin said as he and Antonio led the way. Jayden, of course, followed close behind until Mike pulled him aside.

Mike's POV

"Look I understand how you feel, but you have to calm down. I mean no one helped me with Emily and I didn't act like as much of a jerk as you have," I whispered. I'd pulled him out of earshot of Emily, but I still wanted to make sure no one was listening, so I spoke as quietly as I could.

Jayden hissed back quietly, "Emily wasn't kidnapped, she ran away!"

"How do you know? Her communicator was off, someone could have—"

"But they didn't and she's fine, and this is all your fault!" And with that he was already back in formation with the group.

Biting my tongue I fought the urge to do anything crazy. Sure Jayden deserved a good punch in the face, and a slap upside the head for being an idiot, but right now wasn't the time. I would have to remember to give him heck after we found Mia.

Catching up to the group I kept pace beside Emily. I knew she could run faster than this, I'd watched her when she ran from me at the beach, but I was glad that she wasn't in full speed. I felt like I needed to stay close by her side.

"Guy's let's use the battle wing it'll be faster," Kevin suggested, and I nodded in agreement. It would be a lot easier for us all too, because then none of us had to be too close to Jayden who was pretty much all but trying to kill us.

Kevin and Antonio took their wing, Jayden took to his own, and Emily and I jumped in mine.

We were quiet for a while, but Emily couldn't hold everything in much longer so I knew I had to get her to talk, besides she was better off going into battle with a clear head.

"Hey Em, it's not your fault. Jayden's just over-reacting. And—"

She cut me off, "I'm sorry, for running away… I just thought that if you knew everything you wouldn't want to speak to me again. And I can't have that happen. I mean you're the only one on this team that makes me feel like… Like I belong here, and you're my best friend and—"

"Emily," I cut her off because I couldn't stand knowing that it was my fault she had gotten so upset.

"Emily," I started, this time I was a little calmer, "You're always going to be important to me, no matter what happens. And you can trust me with anything. I swear that I'll listen. I might not always agree, but I'll never stop caring about you or talking to you. And I…" I couldn't say it.

All this time I had been thinking about what I would say to her after I found her, and about what Master Ji said about her finding someone else. When I thought about what she told me about her Romeo I guessed that she already had found some other guy. Still I wanted to tell her that I loved her. But… I just couldn't get the words out.

"You what?" she asked.

Shaking my head I finished with, "I don't know what I would do without you."

Pretty lame, huh?

Or at least that's what I thought until I felt her slender arms wrap around me as she pulled me into a hug.

She smiled, "Good, because I don't know what I would do without you either."

And then we landed.

"Let's go get Mia back," Emily said as she let go of me and charged forward. She seemed like she was back to her normally bubbly self.

Thank goodness.

Shaking my head again I followed her, thanking whatever God was out there for letting me make her happy. Because she deserved to be happy for the rest of her life, and she deserved more happiness than I could probably give her. Still, it was nice to think that I could make her happy forever, even if that thought would probably only last for a little while.

Emily's POV

Another warehouse? Really when will these bad guys start getting a little more original?

I looked around, Jayden had us split up since we needed to find Mia as fast as possible. Mike didn't agree with this idea, and neither did I or Kevin, or Antonio, but…

"You see her yet?"

I almost jumped out of my skin, but was relieved when I found Kevin standing behind me.

Checking to make sure Jayden wasn't around I whispered, "You're not supposed to be here."

"Well since Antonio is trying to get a good read on the place and Jayden is about to kill Mike, I told Mike that I would keep an eye on you," Kevin explained and started searching the path before us.

"I can take care of myself!" I pouted.

"Well you kind of freaked Mike out when you took off. He just wants to make sure nothing happens to you," Kevin countered as he started up a pile of boxes and peeked through a window.

Crossing my arms I pouted a little more, but I would have done the same thing if I could. I wanted it to be Mike there with me though… Instead of Kevin.

Then again, maybe it was better for me to start hanging around the other rangers more. If I latched onto Mike forever I would never be okay when he got a girlfriend…

"Emily, it's Mia," Kevin called waving me to follow up after him.

I took a deep breath and shook off the thoughts I had. I needed to forget about Mike right now, and focus on Mia. Mia, the girl that Mike cared about so much and just ended up going out with that psycho Jayden.

Okay so maybe he had a reason for being psycho, but that still didn't give him the right to be so mean.

Looking through the window I saw that Kevin was right. There was Mia dangling from the ceiling with Dayu laughing her head off. Apparently this had all been a trick to get to Mia. And that of course put Jayden in a more vulnerable position which meant that…

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked looking at Kevin.

He nodded, "That this was all a trick to get to Jayden. Since Dayu knows that Jayden can't stand seeing a ranger in trouble. And the fact that it's Mia puts him in more danger, so we should tie him up and leave him in the battle wing so he doesn't get in anymore trouble?"

Giggling I replied, "Well, yeah, although I wasn't thinking about tying up Jayden until after you said it. Let's tell Mike and Antonio. We'll need their help if we expect to even get close to Jayden."

Mia's POV

I wiggled around again. There had to be a way out of these ropes. If only Dayu hadn't taken my Samuraizer.

"Oh, go ahead and squirm. Rope burn will just entice him more," Dayu laughed.

Something about her just really made me crazy. She was like evil, but… There was something in her that was still good. It was like she could be good if she wanted to, but she just chose not to. That was what made her truly sick.

There was a lot of noise from outside, which was strange, because usually a Samurai wouldn't want to make any noise.

Dayu waved one of the monsters around her to go check it out, but there was suddenly an explosion and then four rangers popped in, but where was Jayden?

Was he okay?

Helplessly, I watched as the rangers fought off the moogers, but they couldn't do anything when Dayu launched a net their way. They tried their swords, but nothing seemed to cut through the netting.

Dayu gave and evil laugh, "Now all we have to do is wait for the red ranger to show up and the rangers will be history forever!"

I looked towards the guys trying to see if this was some sort of plan or what, but I already knew. If Jayden wasn't with them he was either dead, or injured. He would always come for me.

Struggling even more now I fought the tears that tried to force their way out. No, this couldn't be it. We couldn't just loose like this. There had to be some way out. Think Mia, think. What would Jayden do?

Emily's POV

I grabbed onto Mike arm watching as the moogers came closer and closer to us. They crowded us ready to tear us to pieces. And they would have done it already, but Dayu must have ordered them not to touch us until the red ranger showed up.

It was a good thing we tied Jayden up. We all would have been a gonner.

"Uh, guys? Any ideas?" Mike asked as he tried yet again to get through the rope with his sword.

Dying. I wasn't really afraid of it. I mean I risked my life almost every day. Heck, I was a walking hazard all on my own without the ranger powers, but that didn't mean I was prepared to die.

"I'm working on it," Antonio's voice rose above the moogers.

Then he yelled, "Quiet!"

And the moogers were all quiet.

Dayu moved forward, "You don't—"

"I said QUIET!" Antonio snapped, "I can't work on this if you're just going to keep making a bunch of noise."

I slapped my hand on my forehead. We were going to die. We were going to die very horrible deaths. And there was absolutely nothing we could do about it, especially if the Gold ranger kept enticing Dayu.

"Look you pathetic bafoon. I'm in charge of the moogers, and if you don't want me to kill you right now—"

"Blah, blah, blah, what's with all your yacking Grandma?" my eyes widened, Antonio had really done it this time.

Bulk's POV

"Hurry up Uncle Bulk, or we're going to be late!" Spike whined stomping out in his heals.

Did he really think we were still going through with this?

It was probably some prank anyway, and the Mia and Emily girl wouldn't even show up with the Pink ranger and the crowd would boo us off stage or throw peanuts or something like that.

Besides, I didn't want to wear that stupid red dress anyway. Even if it did make me feel pretty.

So when he crossed his arms and pouted I still said, "Sure why not?"

Gah! Had I really just said that?"

Spike clapped his hands and went back to practicing how to walk in heals.

"I can't wait to meet the pink ranger," he said.

Poor kid. His heart was going to be broken and his reputation was about to be stained forever. I couldn't let that happen.

"Hey you know Spike—" I tried, but he wasn't listening to me. He was just prancing around holding up the skirt of his dress and wearing a dreamy expression on his face.

Maybe I could let him dream for a little longer. But then I remembered the little Girl Scout who lied and took all my money, and the mess Emily left on our floor.

"Spike!" I shouted, grabbing him by the arm, "It's time you learn the truth."

Spike looked up to me beaming, "Uncle Bulk! You're finally going to tell me where babies come from?"

I shook my head. This was going to take a lot longer than I thought.

AN: Read and review as always. Also, I wanna send a shout out to all you reviewers out there. This story would not be possible without you, because I wouldn't have a reason to keep on writing it. I hope you guys all like it so far and stick with it. Let me know what you think good or bad kay. I love you guys! Keep reading and doing what you're doing.

And to all of you non-reviewers, I'm watching you! :D


	10. Of Missing Things

AN: Gah! I hate it when life gets busy. Thanks to all my fans who put up with waiting for these chapters, sorry.

Anyway, I don't own PRS, so don't sue please

Now on with the Chapter

Of Missing Things

Bulk's POV

When you think you can't go any further, where do you pull your strength out from? Your friends? Your loved ones? Yourself, and what do you want?

My name is Bulk, and I'm an Uncle to Spike who wants to meet the Pink Power Ranger so badly he didn't listen to a word that I said. So, where am I now?

I'm standing behind a curtain getting ready to show everyone just what I look like in a wig, with a little lipstick, and a dress.

The things I do for the people I love… And for forty bucks…

Emily's POV

Well, Antonio did it. He got the moogers to attack us. Luckily they're swords were able to cut through the net we were trapped in, and we were able to get out and start fighting back.

It was probably his plan all along, we're just lucky it worked and didn't end up backfiring.

I was beginning to think we were going to be stuck in there and miss Prom and the rest of our lives. I was scared too. Scared that maybe the truth was that we really weren't strong enough to beat the bad guys.

I mean what if the worst happens, and we can't save everyone? What would we do if the odds weren't in our favor?

Unfortunately, we were about to find out.

In the middle of fighting the battle wing rammed into building causing more damage than our first explosion had. If only Jayden had stayed out of everything.

Eventually, Dayu would have gotten tired of fighting and left, but when he showed up… She seemed to gain new life. She was so determined to do this, and I'm not sure any of us knew why. All we knew is that something else was driving her to kill the red ranger, something that was very important to her.

Jayden's POV

Really? Did the team really think I could be held down by a couple of ropes? Especially since they left me with my samuraizer.

Was I threat to the team like this?

Maybe a little…

And looking back on things, I regret what I did and how I acted, but if I got the chance to do it over again I would still do it. Maybe I'd be a little smarter about it and a little less angry towards Mike, tried not to make everyone miss Prom, but I still would have gone after Mia. At all costs.

I looked around the room and saw Mia, I wasn't too late.

Mia's POV

When things got bad and I felt like giving up I thought about Prom. About how it was probably too late to get ready and go and have fun with my friend one last time, and how I would probably never see Jayden again. But I wouldn't cry. No, I wouldn't give Dayu the satisfaction. Then I saw the battle wing crash right through everything and suddenly I thought that everything was going to get better.

Only it wasn't…

Antonio's POV

Did I know that getting the moogers to attack the rope was going to work? No.

Did I know Jayden still had his samuraizer on him and would mess up everything? Also no.

I hadn't really thought that far ahead. The only difference is that one mistake worked and the other… Not so much.

But sometimes that's what happens with life, you need trial and error. I just wish that some errors didn't have such costly consequences.

I swung at another mooger. I was upset about Jayden coming to the rescue, but there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was focus on the task at hand.

Bulk's POV

Pacing myself I tried to steady my breathing. There was no way out of this. Not to mention my reputation was at stake.

What would Skull think if he saw me right now? What if he saw his son right now?

"And now it's time for our final contestant's Mia and Emily!"

I took a deep breath and watched as the curtains started to open. I was going to be so sick! Still I toughened up, put on the bravest face I had and started walking out there.

One of the most important aspects of being a Samurai is to keep your honor intact. And I made a deal with the blond hair girl. She might not honor the deal, but I would. For the sake of training Spike. For the sake of becoming a real Samurai.

I would do this. I had to do this.

Mike's POV

Jayden made his way out and positioned himself as our leader like he always does, but I knew what he was feeling. So, I also knew the danger he was in.

And well… You know the saying, 'friends don't let other friends drive drunk?' For some reason that popped into my head right before Jayden went to make his move. Somehow the situation was similar to that saying. I couldn't let Jayden make decisions when he wasn't thinking clearly. It was obvious that he wasn't making a very good one either.

Looking around I tried to decide on what I could do to stop him or get him out of harm's way. The way I saw things I had two options. Jump in front of him like a stupid person or use some never before used symbol power. That's when the worst idea I ever had popped into my head.

Sure it may have save our skins, but…

"Antonio!" I yelled gripping my sword tight, "where's the black box?"

"Right here!" he tapped his pocket, "but it's not-"

Too late, I had already taken it.

Bulk's POV

Spike laughed ferociously as I tried to scrub whatever food condiments had landed on my face, off my face. I mean what was it, super glue throw up? And the glitter and tomatoes and mayonnaise and and… Ugh it was just too much to bear.

Spike on the other hand didn't have even a crumb of food on him. Apparently he's got stage fright. Imagine that! Stage fright saved him from what I got pummeled with!

But his laughter was getting on my nerves and after all this modeling and power ranger business, I would just let him have a taste of what I was going through.

Grabbing the lemon meringue pie on the table backstage I smiled deviously.

"Hey whatcha doing with that Uncle Bulk?" my prey winced, calculating if he had time to run.

"Hey that's for beauty pagenteers only!" yelled one of the security guards.

Only I wasn't listening. I was walking closer to Spike.

"Un-Uncle Bulk, what about Samurai?" He asked.

I smiled, "Spike," I said, "Spike, Samurai know how to run very, very fast!" and I threw that pie as hard as I could at his face only, he ducked and instead of the pie hitting him, it hit the guard who yelled at me earlier.

Stunned, the guard blinked a few times and then reached back to grab his cuffs.

"Is it time to run Uncle Bulk?" Spike asked.

Nodding I spoke in a squeaky, but strong voice, "Yes, Spike. Yes it is," and then took off running as fast as my feet would carry me, leaving my little red heals behind me.

Kevin's POV

We all awoke sometime the next morning. There were no moogers, no Dayu, and no samurai powers.

Mike used the black box just as Dayu fired one of her evil nighlock powers at us. We saved Jayden, but in return all of our powers were lost inside the black box.

"Seriously how could you be so careless!" I snapped.

This was bad. Giving up my swimming career was supposed to mean that I was doing something more important, not that I was wasting my time. How were we supposed to beat the nighlock now?

Antonio smiled, "Hey, no worries I can fix it! It's just going to take a while..."

"Yeah," I hissed, "And how long exactly is a while?"

Everyone looked away. Because they all knew that we had no idea. In the time it took Antonio to fix everything. we could all be old and gray.

Standing on his feet Mike apologized, "I'm sorry guys, I needed to think fast and so I…"

Then Jayden chirped in, "We all did crazy stupid stuff. I was so upset about losing Mia and not being strong enough to protect her, and I was so jealous that you got your best friend back and I lost mine, and I just couldn't think straight."

"No," Emily cut in, "It was me, if I hadn't come up with the idea to go to Prom, if I hadn't run away none of this would have happened and I-"

"GAH!" Antonio screamed, "Stop! Just stop blaming yourselves! This wasn't anyone's fault. It happened and now we have to deal with it. And that is not going to happen if we all keep apologizing and feeling sorry for ourselves."

Antonio was right, but I was still upset. I'd given up everything to become a ranger. Maybe… Maybe now I could just go back to being Kevin and start training for the Olympics.

Antonio had made me so mad when he said he wanted to be one of us. I'd given up everything because I'd been forced to be a ranger and he just came here and asked to be a ranger without a care in the world. I'd wondered then if anyone would care if I quit and let him be a ranger in my place.

Of course, I knew that idea was stupid and let it go soon after I had it, but that didn't mean I was ready to just give up my dream. Someday I would be an Olympic swimmer, and maybe that's what losing my powers meant.

I walked out of the warehouse without anyone stopping and just started walking, somehow I ended up back at the dojo. It wasn't my duty to protect the city anymore, but I still went right back to where everything started. That's the funny thing about being a ranger, once you are one, it's forever.

Mike's POV

I'd really messed up. Mia and Emily missed Prom because of me. Jayden wasn't too happy about that either, but he was okay with it as long as he knew that Mia was okay. Not to mention everyone had just lost their powers because of me.

Antonio didn't really care, and who knows what Kevin thought, but he always thought the worst anyway. I looked at my team, and I knew I had to do something for them.

That's how I ended up breaking into Mia and Emily's school. Hey, all I needed to do was talk to the principal.

Yeah, I went through the window. Big deal. And so what if I was hanging out in the principal's office without him there.

"Excuse me?!" yelled an angry man in his forties who walked into the office and saw me sitting there with my feet on his desk, in his chair.

"I want you to throw another Prom," I said bluntly cutting straight to the point.

Now, how to get him to agree?


	11. Have a Little Faith

Have a Little Faith

Emily's POV

It's been a month since we lost our powers. A month. That means one month of Nighlock attacks we couldn't stop. One month of trying to figure out the black box. And one month of us moping around.

I think the part that made it so bad was that Mike wouldn't even look at me. He said that he didn't blame me for anything, but if he didn't then… Why was he ignoring me?

I tried everything to try and repair our friendship. I tried to pair up with him at training, but he always went off by himself. I sat by him at dinner and he would move. Video games didn't seem to help either.

Mia tells me to just give it time, but I don't think… I don't think I'll ever have my best friend back.

Sitting down by the creek was the only way for me to still feel like I had any kind of connection with him. It was sort of our place. We used it whenever we needed to get away from all the other rangers. We would talk about everything there. Our families, what our lives used to be like, everything.

So, I sat there, my knees pulled into my chest, trying to figure out how everything fell apart. I cried a little, but I didn't make any noise because I didn't want anyone to find me.

When Mike sat down beside me I wiped them away, but I knew he already saw them.

I knew that I probably should have headed back to dojo since it was getting dark, but this was the only contact I'd had with Mike in days. I could risk the mosquitoes.

"Hey," I said, but he was still ignoring me.

"I um… I'm sorry that I didn't tell you anything Mike. I'm sorry that I didn't let you know about prom. I was just scared that you would get upset and tell Master Ji so we wouldn't get to go and then Mia wouldn't get to dance with Jayden. Not that we went anyway, but… And I'm sorry that my recklessness almost cost us everything. And I'm sorry that Jayden and Mia are together because I know that you wanted to be with her-"

He scrunched his eyebrows, "Why would I want to be with Mia?"

They were the first words he'd said to me in so long, "Because you like her don't you?"

He looked up at the sky, "I don't like her," and then he finally looked at me, "And you can stop apologizing for everything. I'm not mad at you… I'm at myself."

Confused I asked, "Why?"

Mike shook his head, "You just don't get it do you? I'm mad at myself because I couldn't be the one you confided in about Prom. I wasn't the one you could trust through any of this. I made you feel like… Like I would hold everything you did against you. If I just would have been that guy, the one you could have talked to about this stuff, none of this would have ever happened. You wouldn't have felt like you were waiting to be judged, and you wouldn't have left the team.

It's my fault we lost our powers too, and that you missed Prom and just everything. Ugh. I can't do anything right.

I'm sorry Em…" He whispered looking down at the creek.

"But… You didn't do anything wrong. I should have trusted you," I said putting my hand on his shoulder and he smiled at me, but I knew there was something else going on in that head of his.

"Mike, promise me something…" I said, "Promise me that you'll stop blaming yourself for all of this. It just happened, okay."

He looked away and scratched the back of his head, "That's a little hard to promise Em."

Biting my lip, I struggled for the right words, "I know, but I know what it's like to think like that. It's not good for you. I know it wasn't good for me."

Mike looked in my eyes, "Could you promise me the same thing?"

Honestly, I didn't know if I could promise that either, I had been blaming myself for everything too.

He opened his mouth to say something, but his communicator went off.

Smiling, Mike got up, "We'll have to put that thought on hold for the moment, it's ready."

Curiously, I looked at him and his huge grin, and asked, "What's ready?'

"You'll see!" Mike exclaimed as he took my hand in his and led me through the dark out of the forest and into…

"Mike! It's amazing!" All around the training center there were flowers and lights, and there was music playing.

"I know you didn't exactly get to go your own Prom, so I—Do you want to dance?"

I smiled and grabbed his hand leading him onto the training/dance floor. How he'd come up with all of this I had no idea. But it was perfect.

"How did you?"

"Well… I kind of got everything and hid it in my room. Then all I had to do was stall while the others put everything together," then he stopped us for a moment a picked up a white Lily and handed it to me.

"Mia said that these are your favorite," he explained and I smiled tucking it behind one my ear.

Wrapping my arms around his neck I gave him a hug, "Thank you so much!"

That's when I heard the music venue change to something a little more dancy and I saw the others come out. It was the best night ever. I couldn't have asked for a better Prom.

Mike's POV 

Emily was so happy. I honestly wouldn't have know what to do if she hadn't been. All I wanted to do was see her smile again, especially with how tough everything had been lately.

Plus it worth it to see the way Antonio did the funky chicken. That was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life and was definitely going up on youtube later. I'd have to remember to thank Kevin for video tapping that.

I yawned as the others made their way inside. Emily and I decided to stay behind and watch the sun come up.

I couldn't talk to Emily while I was planning this whole thing, because I didn't want her to know what was going on. I'd missed her so much. So, I really didn't care how many laps Master Ji would make me do for sleeping in while I should have been working.

"Thank you," she murmured as she held me.

Tightening my embrace, I let her rest her head on my shoulder as we sat together watching the light come up over the horizon hiding the stars and making it seem like the night had never happened.

"It's so pretty, but I'm sad…"

"Yeah, beautiful," I agreed thinking about the beauty of the girl in my arms rather than the sunrise, "What's wrong?"

"It's over," she frowned.

"I know, I don't want it to be over either," I admitted, but I knew it wasn't because the night was over, but because I knew when the sun finally rose I was going to have to let go of Emily. Meaning I would have to go back to pretending that I wasn't in love with her.

Her breathing started to slow and I knew that she'd fallen asleep. So, I waited there with her just a little longer. Because I knew I wasn't going to get another chance like this.

Finally, when I knew that it was almost time for Master Ji to get up I carried her to her room and laid her down on her bed.

Mia was still asleep so I let my hand graze Emily's face and I kissed her forehead before I left her completely. Shutting the door I felt it hit me. The need to see her again, to see her smile, to be around her, anything, came back, but I resisted. As always. Things were going to go back to the way they were. They had to.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually," Master Ji interrupted and I all but jumped out my skin. I hadn't expected him to be up an hour before he usually is. He looked even more tired than I was. Guess he hadn't been getting much sleep lately.

"Now go get some sleep before I make you run laps," he snapped.

I nodded, happy and a little scared at the same time.

Me tell Emily… Yeah… I didn't know if I could ever tell her. But I did know that Master Ji was right… I was going to run out of time eventually; she would convince her Romeo to woo her, or her sister really would come back.

I would have to tell Emily, even if she didn't feel the same way.

Emily's POV

The gap sensor went off, waking me up, and everyone rushed to the living room where we sat, and waited for orders. We hadn't been able to stop a single nighlock attack, but that didn't mean we had stopped trying. It was our duty to save the world.

When Master Ji entered no one looked up, we kept our heads down, each one of us trying to figure out how we were going to help without any tools.

That was when Master Ji drew up a power symbol and we saw… Other rangers doing our job.

"This isn't right…" Jayden sighed.

"No duh, they're cleaning up our mess!" Mike snapped.

He really was taking it harder than the rest of us.

"But what can we do?" Mia asked.

"We're useless without our powers," Kevin agreed.

But accepting our fate, going back to living a normal life wasn't enough for me. Not anymore.

"No! We did all that training, and we were the ones chosen to be rangers. We should be the ones fighting. Bulk and Spike may not be rangers, but they still train to be Samurai and do their best to have courage against the Nighlok. So we should too. It wasn't our powers that made us Samurai. It was who we are," I said.

Everyone looked surprised and confused, everyone except Antonio.

He agreed with me, "That's right. I was never supposed to be a ranger at all, and I still found a way. Maybe there's another way to fight off these Nighlok."

Master Ji spoke up, "Without your powers it's much too dangerous out there."

"That doesn't stop Bulk and Spike," I crossed my arms.

Still confused Kevin asked, "Who are Bulk and Spike?"

"You know those goofy guys we always see around the moogers? The ones who try to pretend their Samurai too?" Mia asked and the others nodded, "them."

"Yeah, but don't we always end up saving the day and keeping them from getting toasted?" Kevin was confused again.

"Ugh," I rolled my eyes, "The point is we might not have our powers right now, but that doesn't mean we should just give up."

Having my back, Jayden spoke up, "Emily's right you guys. We are the Power Rangers. Maybe we can still get back our powers. Master Ji still has his, Antonio try adding his symbol power to the black box, see if maybe he can get it to unlock."

Without a second thought, Antonio went to work. The rest of us had nothing to do, but wait. And waiting made us a little crazy.

I followed Mike outside as the others went back to their daily chores.

"You okay?"

He shook his head, "You and I both know what he's planning won't work. Nothing is going to unlock that box."

"Hm… Well maybe Antonio can make us all new symbol powers or something. Or who knows, there are other rangers, maybe we can get new powers by asking them-"

"You don't get it do you? We aren't getting new powers or whatever. This is it. Game over," he shrugged.

"Well with Game Over's don't you usually restart the Game?" I asked.

He sat down on the bench outside and shook his head, "You don't get restarts in real life."

Smiling I sat down next to him, "Yeah, but we do get to stick around and figure out how to make it without a restart. Have a little faith. I'm sure everything is going to work out."

"I sure hope you're right Em…"

Bulk's POV

"Alright Spike. The Samurai Ranger's are gone. It's our time to step and become real Samurai!" I exclaimed pounding my fist in the air.

"Uh… Uncle Bulk, if the rangers are gone who are they?" Spike scratched his head and pointed towards… More Rangers?

Their helmets were different, but they were certainly rangers.

Great. Now I'll never get a chance to prove how tough I really am.

"Are you those guys from the fashion show?" a little boy asked.

Spike and I looked at each other unsure of what to say, but we both nodded.

That little boy laughed as hard as he could and then asked us for our autographs?

"You guys we're so funny. No one else would have the guts to do that," the boy said.

It was strange having this young boy ask for my autograph and for a moment I was almost happy.

That is, until I heard his mother yell, "Stay away from my Son!" and she whipped out some pepper spray.

"It's time to run again, isn't it Uncle Bulk?" Spike asked from my side.

"Yes Spike, I think it is," and with that Spike and I took off towards home once again.

Some things just never change.


	12. Finally

AN: OH MY GOSH! So like, I'm sorry I like fell off the face of the earth these last few months, and I hope you guys are all still with me because I plan on continuing this fic. Again I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this posted

Well, without further ado the chapter begins

Finally

"Hey, Mia?"

"Yes, Emily?" Mia rolled over on her bed to face me.

It was late, but we were both having trouble sleeping. Ever since Antonio and Master Ji started working, strange things had been happening. Enemies started getting into the dojo and things would randomly fly on their own. Plants would grow from out of nowhere and the ground would shake a little every now and then.. Not to mention the fact that sometimes fire and water would spring out of nowhere.

It was all of our spirit powers releasing themselves in their own ways, which is why we were constantly watching our backs. The other rangers were able to keep the monsters pretty much under control, so we didn't have to worry about that, but I think we still felt pretty useless.

"I wish we didn't have to let those other rangers do all the work," she said.

The other rangers had come from a completely different place, although we weren't really sure if it was another time or another dimension. We just knew that they had to find a way back home, but that they would help out while they were here.

"Me either," I said turning away from her and expecting for the conversation to be over.

It wasn't until Mia started talking again that I realized that the other rangers weren't the only thing she wanted to talk about, "I think Jayden's starting to crack too."

I nodded, Jayden was always the one who trained the hardest because this was his life, his whole life and being a ranger is what his world revolved around. Sure, you'd think Kevin would crack first, but if you really got to know Kevin, you'd also know that being a ranger didn't mean the same thing to Kevin as it did to Jayden. We were all just surprised Kevin hadn't taken off to start training for the Olympics yet, but, he had been spending a lot of time at the beach when he could sneak away from dojo. Master Ji wouldn't let us leave unless it was for food, and even then he was reluctant, stating, it was too dangerous for us to be out there.

"I just don't know how to cheer up Mike, he's taking it the hardest," I said sitting up, because I know I wouldn't be able to sleep with the way this conversation was going. Not with the guilt eating me up inside.

Mia sat up too, "Why don't you get his mind off things with that new video game that came out?"

"Bought it, played it, went back to moping," I sighed.

"Well…You could…" Her voice trails off, but she doesn't speak again.

"What?" I ask.

"Never mind, it's silly."

Curious, I whined, "Tell me!"

Her voice was softer and quieter than before, "Maybe you two could go on a date."

My eyes went wide, and a blush crept up on my face, "What?!" then I covered my mouth because I knew I'd yelled just a little too loud. It was just that… I wasn't expecting her to say that… At all.

There were some footsteps in the hall, and I knew that the others heard.

"Please don't say anything about what you just said," I whispered to Mia who nodded when the door opened and the scared boys peered in ready for danger.

Mia and I both acted as if their presence was completely bazaar.

"What are you doing?" Mia asked, cocking her head to the side.

The boys looked around. It looked like they felt a little foolish for their outburst and I almost felt bad for them until Antonio busted through the gang wearing a hockey mask and swinging a rubber swordfish.

"Never fear! Antonio is here!"

It was hard holding back the laughter as I told him, "Antonio calm down, we're fine. You don't need to sacrifice Mr. Fishy tonight."

The gang, excluding Antonio burst out in a fit of giggles while he just said, "Oh, yeah, I'll have you know that Mr. Fishy here has protected me from boat loads of monsters!"

"I-I'm sure he has," Jayden laughed, finally calming down after his fit of giggles.

When the room finally calmed down, Mike was the the second one to speak, "Are you guys sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I just had a little nightmare, but I'm fine," Mia covered, but Mike still looked suspicious.

"Really, you did?" he said, not taking his eyes off of me, "Because I could have sworn that was Emily's voice."

Now all the guys turned towards me, and I have to say, it's hard to lie to them. Especially after all the lying that went on with Prom.

So when I said, "You heard wrong," it comes out weak and distorted and almost doesn't sound like my voice at all.

They all nod, and Kevin, Antonio and Jayden all leave right away, even though they know I'm lying. Mike stays a second longer, and I can see it hurts him that I'm lying to him again and, suddenly, just as he turns to walk away, I find I can't let it end this way again.

"Wait," I know what I'm about to do is a little crazy and reckless, but I see his tired, sad eyes looking into mine and I can't stop myself, "It was me, alright. I was just caught off guard by Mia's question and I didn't really want the others to know what was going on because it was about you."

Now, I've got his attention and he sits on the end of my bed.

Mia gets the hint of what I'm about to do almost immediately and scurries out, saying something about how she needs a glass of water.

Mike watches her leave and then turns to face me again, and asks, "What about me?"

I take a deep breath, "Well she knows that I-"

Before the words could make it out of my mouth the rain started. Inside.

"Wah!" I yelped as I ran out of the room hoping that it wasn't raining anywhere else inside the dojo, luckily the hallway was fine, but I still slipped and ended up in Mike's arms.

Soaked, I tried to dry my face off with the sleeve of my pajamas, but it didn't work so well since my sleeve was wet anyways. I laughed a little, thinking about how silly the whole thing was.

Mike, on the other hand didn't think it was funny at all as he snapped, "We just have to get that black box back to normal."

Normally he would have made a joke about the whole thing. 'We have to get you back to normal too,' I think.

His arms were still around my waist, so I relaxed my arms on his and laced my fingers through his fingers. Of course I wasn't sure how he would respond, but I didn't care at the moment.

"It'll all be alright. Good always comes out on top," I smiled.

Mike tightened, "That's only in books, games, and movies."

"No," my voice was stronger than usual, because I knew for certain, "In life too. Sure crazy things happen. They always happen. But I think that everything leads to a greater cause. So, that means no matter what all the crazy things do to us, we'll all have our happy endings if we believe."

"I don't know Em, there's a lot of people who don't exactly get their happy ending. There's a lot of bad things in this world," he whispered leaning his head on mine.

"Maybe, but I think that even the unhappy endings can turn out to be a good thing. For example, maybe the whole Prom thing got ruined for me and Mia, but then we got to have one with you guys. And this black box thing might be inconvenient right now, but you saved us from getting killed, and we got to learn some things from these other rangers about how to fight without using our Samurai powers," I explained.

The rain stopped in the room behind us, or at least we couldn't hear it raining anymore.

"Hey, Em," Mike changed the subject, "What were you saying before about Mia saying something about me that surprised you?"

Nervously, I unwrapped myself from Mike's grasp. I knew I couldn't lie to him anymore, but with the rain I'd lost my confidence.

Still, this was Mike, my best friend in the whole world. I could tell him everything. What about this made everything so… different.

"I'm afraid to tell you."

"Why would you be afraid to tell me?" he asked.

Still, all I could say was, "Because you probably won't talk to me again."

"Oh," was all he said.

There was no that could never happen, or I'm your best friend you can tell me anything. Only, I wasn't sure if it was because those things went without him saying and he was a little upset that I didn't trust him again, or if he was letting me know that there were things I could say that would make things weird between us. That there were things I could say so there would never be an us, friends or otherwise.

When I opened my mouth again I felt like I was about loose the best friend I had no matter what I said, "Mike, it's complicated. It's not that I don't trust you. I trust you more than anything. I just-"

"It's alright," he cut me off, "It isn't like I've been completely honest with you either."

I looked up at his face and then down at my P.J.s I wasn't sure what to say. I felt betrayed, and yet at the same time I knew I couldn't blame him. Could I?

We didn't speak to each other again. We just sort of stood there dripping wet, until some flames shot out beside us and we had to sidestep out of the way.

"Emily," Mike whispered, and our eyes met, "I need to tell you what I haven't been honest about."

I nod letting him know he's got my full attention, despite anything else that might go wrong in the dojo.

"Okay, well really there are two things," Mike shakes his head and looks away, "First is that I went to your school and had a meeting with your principal about Prom and now I'm kind of not allowed to go anywhere near the place."

The whole 'What?!' look is clearly evident on my face, when out of nowhere Mike kisses me. And it's amazing but it makes me confused so I push away, and look at him expecting for him to laugh like he just pulled one of his pranks. Like he had planned that all along.

Except the only thing I saw in his eyes was fear, pain, and what other emotion I hadn't noticed before, "I love you Emily."

I was too shocked to say or do anything. When he let go of me and turned to leave I just stood there.

But when he took his first step forward, I pounced grabbing onto his arm like I was some sort of crazy person.

"Mike! I love you too!"

Antonio's POV

Sleepy, so very very sleepy. Why can't this silly box just open? Instead it has to be as twisted as the tide in the sea. Sea… Wave patterns… Hm…

Maybe it'll work if I reverse the wave patterns of the symbol powers from trying to get out of the box to going into the black box so the force will push them out.

Great!

Oh wait, no one has any more symbol powers to put into the black box…

Hm… Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy.

It's like fishy, fishy, fishy.

All I want to do is swimmy, swimmy, swimmy.

Like a fishy, fishy, fishy.

I yawned, I hadn't slept in a few days, and seeing fishies around my head wasn't a good thing. Especially when they were singing happy songs.

Hm… Maybe if I tried an energy drink?

AN: Oh no, Antonio and an energy drink? Will the world explode? :D


	13. Where are They?

Where are They?

Mike's POV

When Em, came in my room to wake me up, I'd gotten nervous. She seemed so scared, and I was sure that the last time I had seen her, she was perfectly fine. Perfectly happy infact.

"It's Antonio," she said, and then hesitated, "We think he's had an energy drink and turned Kevin and Jayden over to the dark side."

What could I say, I just had to know what happened. Of course, I wanted to know because I wanted to know why I'd been left out of the energy drink fun.

When I walked into the kitchen with Emily I almost doubled over in laughter.

Besides, seeing Mia hold court in a room as hectic looking as the situation was (there was sugar everywhere, Mia's cake from earlier somehow dented the floor—glad I didn't eat that—,and there were random accounts of mysterious things going on around town by three wild men playing on the tv we'd set in the kitchen) there was also Jayden, Antonio, and Kevin sitting there with the tiredest look on there faces and the most silly costumes I've ever seen (Antonio was in a chicken costume, Kevin was wearing a shirt with bunnies on it, and Jayden for some reason looked like a vampire).

They all looked to me with puppy dog eyes, but they would get no sympathy, not when they'd left me at home for a boring night of sleep.

Nope, they deserved every second that Mia held them on trial. Master Ji's punishment would be cool to listen to as well.

So, I sat and smirked, and listened to the whole account.

Antonio's POV

When I was sure everyone was asleep, I ran to the fridge getting into Kevin's secret stash of energy drinks. He doesn't hide them very well, but every time we see them he denies that they're his. Still we know better because even he needs a little help getting the energy he needs to be a ranger, sometimes.

And I thought that if he could drink them then so could I.

I took my first big sip. At first I could have sworn that it tasted of motor oil, then the next second it didn't matter anymore.

Jayden's POV

I finally got back to sleep after hearing one of the girls scream and all of a sudden I hear this crash.

So, instantly my instincts kick in and I move stealthily to the kitchen hiding just out of reach, but ready to make my move. Just as I'm about to go all killer on the fool who woke me up, I heard this weird mountain country music come on and a bunch of stomping. Confused I peek around the corner, not expecting what I see.

Kevin's POV

It was two in the morning, and I was tired and so out of my sleeping schedule that I was about ready to snap.

First there was the whole scream, then there was a crash, and all of a sudden some freaky banjo music comes booming out of the kitchen. My eye had already been twitching enough that week due to unexpected spirit symbols going awry among many other things involving a black box and not having our Samurai powers. The rest of it was just too much.

So, when I heard Antonio shouting about magic rabbits, stomping his feet, and the sound of Jayden joining him in his crazy antics, I ran out to the kitchen and tackled Antonio to the ground.

"Whoa!" Jayden yelled pulling me off of Antonio before I killed him.

"Whoa! Nothing! It's two in the morning!" I snapped back.

"Here, have an energy drink."

My better judgment that night had already left the building, so I took one.

The rest…

Mia's POV

Sure, I may not seem like it, but I'm the most level headed one in the group, so obviously when I saw the news story covering my boyfriend and our friends, I got a little crazy.

"What is wrong with you!" I snapped.

Okay, so I was a lot of crazy.

"Look, Mia if you're feeling bad, we thought of inviting you, but Jayden said it would be a bad idea!" Antonio whined.

I could hear Mike snicker from behind me. He thought this whole thing was funny.

'Well, I'd give him funny,' I thought in a sarcastic voice.

"I didn't want this to happen in the first place! Now we're covered in every news story from here to who knows where and what if the world finds out we're power rangers. We're putting people in danger! Right Master Ji!" surely Master Ji would back me up.

When I didn't get a response I saw that Master Ji was staring at the wall.

"Master Ji?!" I whined.

"Huh," he looked at me, "Yeah, like Mia said you guys were bad. Now let's all get some sleep before it rains again."

Everyone started to get up. How could they not see how serious this all was.

"Wait! Hello, does anyone not recall what happened. You guys need some discipline! Kevin!" Kevin normally would have helped me out in this situation.

Still, since he was involved in the whole scenario I knew I was taking a leap of faith.

When he didn't answer I opened my mouth to speak again, but Mike beat me to the punch with a sarcastic, "Yeah Kevin? What happened to the Samurai's live and die by being good little Samurai's who don't ever do anything out of character ever?"

"Look, we need to stop arguing!" Jayden yelled, "Mia, it's Antonio's first energy drink, what were you expecting? Just let it slide this time. Besides we're not rangers right now anyway, so what's the harm?"

Emily took a step forward, "You know he has a point."

Luckily Mike was on my side, I think. Well, actually he was probably on his own side where he wanted to see my boyfriend and the others get yelled at, but still.

"Yeah! Well if it was all so alright why didn't he bring us with him?" Mike asked cocking his head to the side.

Crossing my arms I waited for them to respond, because it was true.

Jayden laughed, "Emily's too innocent to go along with anything, Mia wouldn't have let us, and you would have gotten us in so much more trouble."

Mike gave a shrug, "True, but I still think you need to tell us just what exactly you did all night."

"I second that motion," I said scared of what actually happened.

I'd seen the news. Three boys inside a mall after hours and the various things gone wrong. We'd heard the report from the cops and how they would now have to do community service for the next month, but I hadn't heard their story.

Antonio started fist, "Well you see, I've been really tired lately, and there were a few energy drinks in the fridge and uh… I drank one… Then it all went black."

Antonio winced knowing that his story wasn't exactly sound, but I turned my attention towards Kevin. It was his energy drink stock in the first place.

Kevin sighed, "Jayden was already out there when I got to the kitchen, and he'd had one too. I'm surprised they didn't wake anyone else up, they were being so loud.

"The stereo was turned up and they were jumping all around grabbing things like chocolate syrup and whip cream and squirting them at each other. It was a good old fashion food fight. Until…"

"Until, Kevin came in and yelled at us," Antonio crossed his arms.

This made me cross my arms too, "I thought you were in a sugar coma and couldn't remember anything?"

Antonio's POV

Oh crap, she's mad. I know what we did wasn't great, but still we were under the influence of caffeine and sugar, what else could we do.

Maybe we didn't have to throw her cake, but it's not like anyone could have eaten it anyway.

The truth was I remembered everything. I remembered that Kevin came in and yelled at us. I remember that he even tried to be mad when he found out the energy drinks were his, but...

In the end we convinced him that it was time to do something other than sit around all day waiting for our powers to magically appear. That something just happened to mean getting a sugar high and acting like the kids we really were.

What we didn't know was that Kevin likes to eat the Pizza from this really great place just outside the mall. It was open 24hrs a day, so it was fine to go get some, or we thought it would be...

Well, once we were there, and full, we started playing this game where we dared each other to do stuff, and if we didn't we had to chug another energy drink.

Anyway... We ended up breaking into the mall, and it all kind of went from there.

I was the one who decided to put clothes in the fish tank because I was sure the fish were cold, blew up the popcorn machine, and maybe made a music video or two on one of the security cameras. The videos were funny though and all the news people said they thought they were funny, and that was why they were repeated over and over again.

Kevin pulled little stunts like redesigning the statue of the mayor outside the mall with bunnies, moving furniture around in the break rooms, and gluing the shoes to the walls (the ceilings in those stores were too high or else they would have been on the ceiling and it would have been funnier).

Jayden was the one who decided to try on the stuff at the Halloween store only to end up being chased out by the security guards since he was dared to scare them. He was also the one who took all the coins out of the fountain and used those coins to fill over half of the malls toilets. Finally, it was he who crashed the jeep through the store glass in order to get to the candy on the other side.

Yeah...

Anyway back to Mia who was standing there waiting for me to admit everything. Only I wouldn't because I liked keeping all my limbs in tact.

"Huh? I didn't say anything," I said looking as innocent as I possibly could.

Mia crossed her arms, "Sure, and you weren't the one on TV with the talking fish in the "Chicken Dance" music video you did. Ugh," she shook her head, "I don't even want to know why there was ketchup."

Honestly, I wasn't sure why there was ketchup in the "Chicken Dance" video either, but I knew that by the end I was covered in it and so was the talking fish. That was also around the time the popcorn machine exploded causing an end to my music video fun.

"I did that?" I asked scratching my head.

Mia's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head.

Boy, was I in for it.

Emily's POV

Really it was sad. I was sure that the boys felt bad enough as it was without Mia being all cranky about things.

"Hey, Mia why don't you let this go until morning?" I begged.

She was kind of like the mom of the group. In some ways that was a good thing, and in some ways it wasn't. All I knew was that she needed time to calm down and think about what happened.

A simple banning of all energy drinks in the dojo would work just fine. Mia was just too worried to think clearly and say that.

"Really?" Mike laughed, he could be such a trouble maker sometimes, "I think that if you wait too long punishment isn't as effective."

"Oh, you think so? Should I tell Mia who really broke the oven? And why?" I asked.

Mia turned to Mike and growled, "What?!"

"I didn't-"

Mia shook her head, "Save it, Mike. I'll deal with you later."

"Thanks a lot Em," Mike said under his breathe and crossed his arms.

"Awe, Mike, don't be like that," I said grabbing his arm gently, "You know I just want everyone to come out this without any hurt feelings."

"Too late," he grunted.

So I leaned my head on his shoulder, "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me."

"You're not the one whose gonna get yelled at and have to be on clean up duty for the next two months," Mike grumbled.

Sighing, I stood on my tipi-toes and kissed him on the cheek, "I'm sure I could find a way to make it up to you."

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Please help me state their case to Mia so that they can-"

That's when Bulk and Spike's face flashed on the TV, along with Jayden, Antonio, and Kevin.

"What did you do to my friends!" I snapped.

Spike's POV

I smiled snuggling in with my teddy. The sugar rush was finally wearing off.

I looked over to my Uncle Bulk. He was the coolest guy I knew. Sure, he was no power ranger, but he was my hero no matter what.

Today had been a great day with him. We found these guys messing up the mall, and we used our Samurai stealth to become one of them so we could take them into the police station.

Energy drinks are really something else.

Turns out instead of being crooks they were really nice and we all ended up being friends.

Speaking of friends, I remember Emily and Mia. I sure hope they're okay.

Even if I don't get to meet the pink ranger, as long as I know they're okay I'll be alright. Sure I might have gone through the fashion show for nothing, but it was nice getting to know Mia and Emily anyway.

The pink ranger, I wish I knew she was alright too. I hadn't seen her on the news for so long, and people said that all the Samurai Rangers were gone. I hoped they were wrong.

Jayden's POV

Looking at my girlfriend I shrugged, "I don't know what you want me to say."

Mia pressed her hands to her forehead, "Well, if you don't know, me telling you isn't going to help. I just wish you guys would be more careful."

"And not involve innocent bystanders in your fun. Or you know publicly announce where you are to our enemies," Emily chimed in.

Normally, Emily was the peacemaker. She was even on our side until she saw these two guys we hung out with at the mall. They were cool too for the most part. At least, they were if they were joking about being Samurai, which I was pretty sure they were. I mean they had no stealth at all.

"Oh really?" Kevin stood up, "What about you guys and Prom?"

I really wish I knew that was going to come out of his mouth.

Mike just started laughing, and I think he might have pulled out his phone. If he was taking video I couldn't blame him. This was about to get real bad, real fast.

"That's it! Master Ji, I think they should have cleanup duty for three months, and have to clean up the shed, and remodel all the areas that have been burned by the fire symbol," Mia shouted and Emily nodded looking towards the guy who was supposed to be our teacher.

"Huh," Master Ji shook himself awake.

Putting his hand to his head Master Ji said just about the worst thing he could at the moment, "I'm sorry Mia, I wasn't listening," he yawned, "I was just so tired."

Mike laughed harder in the background. With all the times he'd gotten in trouble, you'd think he would've tried to help us out, but you'd be wrong.

"You've got to be kidding me. I live with a bunch of crazy people!" Mia snapped throwing her hands up in the air, then she singled us out one by one, "Antonio you hang out with seafood so much, I think you've actually become a fish. Kevin, you're brain has melted in all that sun you've been getting lately you've become a lazy bum. Jayden you're supposed to be my boyfriend, but I don't think I want to be with someone whose so irresponsible. Then there's you Master Ji, our mentor who can't even stay awake long enough to enforce punishment on us when we do something wrong."

Just then I saw Antonio's eyes light up evilly.

"Who wants an energy drink?" he laughed.

"Me!" Mike jumped raising his hand and...

It was all down hill from there. It ended with us lost inside Master Ji's had no idea it was big enough to get lost in. We also had no idea how to get back out... Or why everyone had clown hair on...

There are some things we will just never know.

Bulk's POV

I looked over to my young trainee Spike as he slept. Then I put on some black paint I had and strapped on my Sammurai sword. Things had gotten out of control. Spike needed the Samurai Rangers to look up to and I was no Samurai Ranger.

So I'd made up my mind to set out during the night and find the rangers while he was still fast asleep.

With my head held high I walked as quietly as I could towards the door only to stumble and fall and hit the floor with a loud crash. I didn't even want to know what piece of polish China I'd fallen on top of this time.

Wincing I looked over and was grateful that Spike was a light sleeper.

Getting up as swiftly as I could I ended falling back down and knocking over the book case in the apartment. I looked back over to the still sleeping Spike.

Even slower, I got up a third time, only to freeze as I heard Spike laugh in his high pitched squeeky laughter, snorting and all and then he was snoring. Gripping my sword I could tell that it was going to be a long night for a Samurai warrior.

As I took a step forward I fell over for a third time.

A very long night.


End file.
